I think the game is so unsettling because you have limited vision, there's almost no background noise when you first start playing it, and the tapes mess with your trust of your actual, physical home and not just the home inside the game. The tapes get more distorted as you go on, almost as if you're losing your mind in losing trust in your house or some other symbolic thing. The monsters aren't the things that intrude or go bump in the night. The monster is the house in which you put all of your trust into. This game distorts one of the things we trust the most. We entrust our loved ones into our house. The reason this game is scary is because it destroys the trust we have for the house. Or something like that, I don't know.
Ah, true! Didn't think about the combination of limited vision and building distrust of environment - that's a terrific combo I haven't seen before. Love games that bring something new to the table like that.
as soon as it got to the tape in the master bedroom im like im not going to sleep tonight then my dog came in my room andim just....this game...this explanation is exactly how i feel rn....
Yeah, me too. I tried to make it loud enough in the video and not talk during it, but even then it's hard to understand everything. I do think subtitles make full immersion more difficult, so I understand why they're not there, but I thought some of the monologues were interesting
+HarshlyCritical I agree, subtitles can really take you out of the environment sometimes, but with a game where the dialogue is really static sounding and muffled like this I feel like it's sort of imperative to have them. 😖
I think something would be ruined in it if it had subtitles. It seemed very deliberate that you had to completely engross yourself in the audio to catch some of what he was saying. There was also something a little unsettling in just being unable to find solace and distraction in his voice anymore, as that was the designated safe space for you when you weren't wandering the silent halls looking for new tapes. The whole thing was about waiting for the next bit of the story, so much so that it was unusually and very effectively stressful to no longer be able to understand it.
That last recording was so beautifully written. The imagery of peeling paint, sinking foundations, the visceral decomposition of a house, likened to that of a festering corpse. As somebody who watches a lot of abandoned building videos, this really brought a shiver up my spine. "Laughing and whispering to itself at the end of some quiet cul-de-sac." "So hungry and so bitter that its scruples dissolve [...]." Absolutely yummy stuff. I would read this game as a short story.
@@mono.isgtds House of Leaves. ughh...I tried to like it, really did. M. Z. Danielewski clearly put a lot of effort into it, but it's the narrative that I couldn't stand.
This creeped me out so intensely that I jumped at 30:21 because that vague blurry shape in the hall looked like a figure sitting there. I think that's a strong sign that you've done your job well when a game that has no jumpscares makes you jump at your own imagination. The whole thing reminded me of House of Leaves a lot too.
Sorry I'm like two years late, but here's a transcript. FIRST PLAYTHROUGH: Tape 1 “In the psychology of the modern civilized human being it is difficult to overstate the significance of the house. Since as early as the neolithic era, humankind has defined itself by its buildings; buildings for worship, buildings for socializing, buildings for protection. Even buildings for the commemoration of the dead. Out of all the structures that mankind has invented for itself there is little doubt that the house is that which it relies on most completely for its continued survival.” Tape 2 “The house is one of the key elements that separates modern humanity from our primitive antecedents. No other creature goes to such lengths to create lasting, permanent shelter for itself nor regards such shelter with such reverence and import. Why do human beings of our modern age foster this tremendous sympathy toward their homes? There are many reasons, of course, but perhaps it is due in small part to seeing them as a reflection of ourselves.” Tape 3 “The anatomy of the house is such that this analogy is less superficial than it may at first seem. To carry it further, if we were to dissect a house as we might a human cadaver, we would find ourselves able to isolate and describe its various appendages and their functions in a decidedly anatomical fashion. There is even a fair number of direct comparisons to be drawn between those organs of a house and those of a human body.” Tape 4 “For example, let’s examine the living room. Often the dominant space of a house’s ground level, as well as typically the center of activity in a well-populated home, the living room is very much the heart of a house. While a human heart circulates blood to oxygenate the body’s extremities, the living room circulates people, activity, communication. It is the room most likely to be found ‘beating’ as active and vivicatious as its name would imply. The comparison is only strengthened when we consider that the living room is most commonly the room to contain the fireplace, making it additionally a locus of actual, physical heat.” Tape 5 “It is easy to think of the kitchen and dining room as the stomach or digestive system of the house, though this comparison is tenuous. By contrast, the function and analog of a bathroom should be immediately obvious. The hallways and corridors of the house are its veins, providing circulation coursing throughout its frame. A staircase bears more than a passing resemblance, both physically and symbolically, to a spine. The windows of a house serve much the same purpose as eyes, and anyone who has ever rounded a bend or long drive and come suddenly face to face with a tall, dark manor will tell you that it is difficult to shake the impression that the house, through its lifeless windows, is a creature capable of vision and intelligence.” Tape 6 “The bedroom is perhaps the room that most eludes direct comparison in this fashion. At a stretch, and allowing for a bit of poetic sympathy, it might be said that the bedroom is not unlike the human mind. Those parts of it that dictate thought and imagination. In the bedroom, dreams are dreamt, passions are ignited, epiphanies are experienced in cold sweat at early hours. In the bedroom is where people invariably spent most of their time though comparatively little of it whilst conscious.” Tape 7 “And yet, this analogy is an incomplete one, for obviously the mind is an exceedingly complex thing. If the bedroom represents the thinking, dreaming part of the brain, then it is the basement that represents those lower, unconscious parts. The basement is dark. It is buried. It’s a place full of cobwebs where memories are stored. A poignant comparison, truly. Often the unnerving uncertainty which comes with considering the deeper aspects of the human psyche is not gazing down at the spilling darkness pooled at the bottom of a basement stairwell. It is a place we spend our childhood filling with monsters that will lay for years in patient silence. It is a place that, barring some specific errand, we seldom want to go.” Tape 8 “Of course this comparison, though appropriate, is a very heavy handed one. Often the basement is nothing more than storage space littered with the corpses of spiders and woodlice. Though poets and psychoanalysts no doubt dread the thought of a dark basement, in truth it is the bedroom, the waking mind, that place of dreams, which is actually the most frightening of all.” Tape 9 “It is here, in the bedroom, where we are at our most vulnerable. Each night we shut our senses to the world for hours at a time, trusting in the house to keep us safe until next we wake, In this state of extreme vulnerability we will spend something like twenty percent of our lives. Anything might stand beside us, watch us, keep us company until dawn, and we would never perceive it. We can only pray that the house will not let such things carry on as we sleep. In this way, during these hours, the bedroom seems less like a mind and more like a mouth. For it is here that the house is most likely to betray us. It is here where we place ourselves most at the house’s mercy and spend each night hoping it will not bite down.”
SECOND PLAYTHROUGH Tape 1 (The same as playthrough one, although garbled and worse audio quality) Tape 2 (completely garbled and inaudible, becoming clearer) “- Why do human beings of our modern age foster this tremendous sympathy-sympathy-sympathy-sympathy-” Tape 3 (loud and garbled, same as in playthrough one, skips and cuts off at the end) BONUS TAPE (in secondary bedroom) “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.” Tape 4 (loud whirring sound) Tape 5 (garbled, muffled) “It is easy to think of the kitchen and dining room as the stomach or digestive system of the house, though this comparison is tenuous. By contrast, the function and analog of a bathroom should be immediately obvious. The hallways and corridors of the house are its veins, providing circulation coursing throughout its frame. A staircase bears more than a passing resemblance, both physically and symbolically, to a spine. The windows of a house serve much the same purpose as eyes, and anyone who has ever rounded a bend or long drive and come suddenly face to face with a tall, dark manor will tell you that THE HOUSE IS A CREATURE-” (cuts off suddenly) Tape 6 “The bedroom is perhaps the room that most eludes direct comparison in this fashion. At a stretch, and allowing for a bit of poetic sympathy, it might be said that the bedroom is not unlike the human mind. Those parts of it that dictate thought and imagination. In the bedroom, dreams-dreams-dreams-dreams-d-d-d-d-d” (audio switches out like two tapes cobbled together) “I dream that there are teeth growing all over me. And they’re on me and in me, like cysts or bone spurs. They’re loose but I cannot move them because I have no hands. I look out through the bedroom window and see a truck approaching. A young man steps out, approaches, and enters through the front door. His body is covered in swollen ticks the size of quarters. He’s walking through the downstairs hallway laughing, he’s urinating on a wall, he spits on the carpet. He’s moving through the first floor breaking and upsetting things. He goes to the basement and stands at the top of the stairs. I’m angry at him so I slam the door and he falls down. I can feel his bones snapping. The ticks are bursting, oozing all their dark blood everywhere. I can feel him being ground up, dissolved and torn, splitting and shredding. I leave the door closed. I close my eyes and try to sleep. The teeth continue growing on me until there’s nothing left of me but teeth, gums, and sinew.’ (audio switches back) The basement is dark.” THIRD PLAYTHROUGH Tape 1 (completely unintelligible voice snippets and loud interference) BONUS TAPE (in secondary bedroom) (horrific, unending screaming on a loop) Tape 2 (loud whirring, snippets of what sound like breathing) Tape 3 (static and repeated/glitched unintelligible voice snippets) Tape 4 “If you were to dissect a house, you would find organs and stomach and veins and spine and eyes (garbled) dreams and memories and a mouth, that will bite down.” Talking to player “There is an important distinction that must be drawn between the words ‘dissection’ and ‘vivisection’, a distinction that would appear to be lost on you. Your purpose was to listen and yet at every turn you have pried, you have prodded, and you have interfered. Have you not been paying attention? Did it not occur to you that as an organism existing in a greater organism, your intrusion would be felt? And still you harassed. And now like the wayward spider that witlessly settles on a sleeper’s tongue, you will be swallowed. Because the truth is this, when a house is both hungry and awake every room becomes a mouth.” EPILOGUE “What happens to a house when it is left alone? When it becomes worn and aged? When its paint peels and its foundations begin to sink? When it goes for too long unlived in, what does it think of? What does it dream? How does it regard those creatures who built it, brought it into existence only to abandon it when its usefulness no longer satisfies them? It may grow lonesome. It may stare for long hours into the darkness of its own empty halls and see shadows, and its heart may jump as it thinks ‘here! here is someone again, I’m not alone!’ and each time it is wrong. And the hurt starts over. It may haunt itself. Inventing ghosts to walk its floors, making friends with its shadow puppets, laughing and whispering to itself at the end of some quiet cul-de-sac. It may grow angry. Its basement may fill with churning acid like an empty stomach, and its gorge may rise as it asks itself through clenched teeth ‘what did I do wrong?’ It may grow bitter. It may grow hungry. So hungry and so bitter that its scruples dissolve and doors unlock themselves. While a house may hunger it cannot starve, so in fever and anger and loneliness it may simply lie in wait. Doors open. Shades drawn. Hallways empty. Hungry.”
When the cassette tape's voice changed into the different voice describing the man that fell down the basement, I felt a shiver run down my spine. As someone who has never had a basement in any of my houses, I've never experienced something of that terror. But I have had the fear of trying to go downstairs during night. The stairs blended in with the floor and it was very dark and it scared me shitless. Loved the game. It really does fuck around with your mind about the connections to a house and a body.
Amazing writing IMO. Very Stephen King-ish in the way that the house becomes more and more "alive". The developer nailed the whole "what is in your head will always be more scary than anything that can be shown" while balancing it with enough stimulation to build up the tension to actually stimulate the player enough (with great audio and creepy glitches) to have him running scenarios in his head which will get him frightened. Oh it makes me happy, that there is someone out there with such a delicate understanding of fear and human psyche. I cannot wait for more of the developers work. Thank you so much for playing this John =) I felt every "No, no, no....no I don't wanna...." with you ;)
Personally, I think it sounds more like Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House," with its legendary opening dialogue describing the inherent 'wrongness' of the eponymous house.
@@nerdiboy5128 agreed, to the point that even as someone who read most of that book (I got too unnerved near the end to finish lol), at first I was positive that the narration of the tapes was partially quotes from it. (not at all a criticism of the writing! meant to be a compliment 😊)
Am I the only person who gets even MORE scared when John is actually and truly scared? You need to play all of this creators games, it's the best being scared again.
Hey, I need some house - caring advice; what do they eat other than dangerous humans who disrespect it? The nearby prison is running out of sloppy burglars for me to kidnap and sacrifice and my house is getting hungry.
I could write an essay on why this game is excellent. The concept, the gameplay, the themes, the atmosphere are all brilliantly linked together. Kitty Horrorshow is an ARTIST. She deserves all the support possible.
You know, I was thinking that the only criticism I could possibly give this game is that the tapes are a bit difficult to understand sometimes, especially for a non-english speaker, and that maybe it could benefit from subtitles. But then it hit me. It's on purpose, isn't it? All of it. The noise and muddy audio that comes with a low quality tape recorder, the voice speaking softly and calmly, almost whispering, the filters, the glitches. It's forcing you to actively listen to it, to pay attention to everything it's saying. Just drop every single stray thought you might be having at the moment and focus completely on the voice coming through the recorder and every single word it utters. You assimilate every word and they nibble at that part of your brain that is deeply afraid of what could be there. And then 14:33 happens, and if what you experienced before wasn't enough, now that you're conditioned to pay close attention to the voice in the recorder, now that your imagination is running wild, the game turns it all against you. Smart. Very smart. Terrifyingly so. One thing's for certain, I'm never painting my bedroom red. And thank god I don't have a basement.
This scared the fuck outta me. I have a big thing about doorways, the dark, and being alone in a house, so this was Nopesville right out the gate; throw in some audio distortion, unsettling glitches, and the great voice acting? Almost passed out from how on edge I was the whole time. Thanks for bringing this developer to light, John. Hope you play more of them so I won't have to.
Never thought it'd happen, but this game actually made the “collect the notes/tapes/etc” mechanic work. I was a little iffy about it at first, but it grew on me as time went on. Even more surprisingly, I didn't find the lack of danger to be a detriment; on the contrary, this is one of the few times I think it would've detracted from the experience. Lots of strengths to this one: The conservative design of the house, coupled with the darkness, made for a disturbing atmosphere. Sound was used to great effect, too. Voice acting and glitches were easily the best parts. I'd really, really love to see a larger game from this developer, preferably with a source of danger since I'm curious to see how they'd approach that. Definitely worth three bucks, and I hope to see more in the future. As an aside, anyone else get some Silent Hill vibes? This seems like it could be a spiritual cousin to PT.
I think what works in its favor is that with the cassette tapes its like youre feeding this machine in this house thats trying to both warn n trap u....like those things were popping up and in weird ways
18:21 the tape plays a children's prayer from the 1700s "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my Soul to keep, If I should die before I 'wake, I pray the Lord my Soul to take"
"When a house is both hungry and awake.... every room becomes a mouth" That line, that freaking final line is so good that made this game stuck with me ever since this video was posted, and it was because it left me actually afraid for a while, the fear you can't get with a jumpscare, but with something that makes you think about the possibility of it becoming real. Love it. Also, the house screaming in pain as it deteriorates and falls apart without bering able to do anything is also very unnerving (29:44)
Yeah, just after the first few tapes I started to notice the silence... the tapes are scary, but at least you can hear something. Then even the tapes start to betray you...
I've watched a few of your videos, and I have to say... thank you. Thank you for just being real and playing some horror games on face cam, like a normal fucking human being who knows how to engage an audience without being disruptive to the game. You got a new sub.
I have never been more uncomfortably tense seeing a horror game. Props to whoever was in charge of audio, because that's definitely what made some of the game's atmosphere excel in tension. At least it did for me. Also fuck the tape at 29:43, that was the worst one. D: The fact that you come back to it later and it's still going fucks with me.
The writing was top notch, which is always lovely to see. The first section seemed too slow to me at first, but once the true horror section started I felt that the setup had been very well thought out - it gave you enough nightmare fuel to make the rest of the game really creepy, but did it in such a way that it wasn't that frightening at the time. The only thing I didn't particularly like was the use of objects glitching out - I found it wasn't actually unsettling, and felt a bit too video-gamey, if that makes any sense. The furniture moving around and rooms morphing was much more effective on me. Personally, I'd love to see more videos on their games.
Scary if you have an imagination & enjoy the poetic idea of a anthropomorphized house. Psychological horror _without_ a monster or "something out to kill or hurt you". And you liked it, John. You liked it because it was well written. It is horror based on human emotion of being alone & forgotten & unloved. The concept of a haunted house has been done in movies, but always with demonic possession, evil entities, Indian burial grounds, etc. This was much more eerie... a house, empty & lonely for so long that it went a little insane. And it waited. Well done - I would love to see more from this developer & will check them out myself.
That idea of a house sitting vacant and slowly going mad comes right out of Shirley Jackson's playbook.... “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
This makes me think of the courage the cowardly dog episode where a house shows up next to theirs, and the house becomes alive. They have to sedate it and stop it from killing them by re-painting and fixing the old house.
Now THIS is an example to the horrible Jeff The Killer 'game developers'. Actual horror requires time and patience, and even a story about a fucking house is scarier than a bunch of royalty-free assets and jump scares.
at 12:05 when he says, "...excuse me??" I was like nodding my head furiously because that's exactly what I thought, "excuse me? yeah hell no, out the window we go, death by a broken neck sounds like heaven by now"
A+ fucking writing like damn. the sense that the house is alive and is a living, breathing creature is conveyed in every word and the tone used implies abandonment and hunger or rather desperation so well and so accurately that you begin to understand exactly whats going on and the thought nags at you over and over, filling you with dread. I had chills the entirety of this game. The voice actors did a great job.
As a huge House of Leaves fan, I loved this. I'm not sure precisely what was said in the basement further on, but it gave me the impression of a person being like a foreign body to the house's, well, body. So of course its immune system would squish them out. Very creepy, and very well done! As a side note, for anyone who has not read House of Leaves, I highly recommend it. It manages to give claustrophobic vibes through text alone. That's pretty darn impressive. It's an interesting experience, certainly!
Games that crash on purpose and do that well, freak me out. More than other games. It makes me feel like it's messing with my computer and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the true horror. It was fun to watch this!
man one of the things that gets to me most in this game is the very limited lighting and just how every room is so big, so its just thig big black void in the center and you end up compulsively hugging the walls. It gets my anxiety going like crazy.
"I'm going back to my safe place, i.e. THE KITCHEN." -goes to kitchen -inserts tape -everything is terrible I also like how, in a game about the interior of a house, your immediate reaction upon hearing new rooms are available, is to try and exit the house.
Imagine this tape for an alternate ending, but with a different voice: "Hey, there! You may know me from before, but that's not important. I won't get into much detail, but I will say this: I've lived in this house. Yes, this was _my_ house. **sighs** "If you're listening to this right now, I know exactly how you feel. It's dark around this time. You could never trust every turn you'd take, every door you'd open. All this time, you've doubted whether you were alone. "You know why I placed this recorder in the kitchen? Because, when my thoughts overwhelm me, and I can't help but think of shadows around the room, when the little voices in my head grew louder each night, I'd sit here and listen to tapes. Just like you're doing right now. One night, I came across this one while I was in the basement. Don't know how it got here, but it made me think. Perhaps too deeply. Ever since I've played this tape, I... ohh, God. I can't describe the feeling. "I was dreadful like you, but... I felt... some sort of loss or something. I've never really thought about why I would see or hear the dark things I would, or whether it was even me all along. Or whether it was even them. "I kept asking this: What even is a home? What makes someone secure? What gives you warmth? Ever since I was a child, I've never understood why I hid under the covers. I'd face the wall, but there might've been something behind me. I turned around, but always hid so I'd never know what it looked like. At last, I looked at the ceiling. Go on, give it a good look." The veins and stuff in the house fade away. "Feel better now? I can tell you why: It's what we do when we think. It's sort of like there's an answer written somewhere if we look long enough. This answer would actually tell us why we're scared. Why we create the monsters we do when there's no light. Must be a part of the human condition, don't you think? "So one night, I stopped hiding in the kitchen. I looked around the house with the lights off, just to get the feel of it. I was still a little scared, but I was so curious. What if the house was just as scared as I was? What's it like being a shadow? Crazy questions, you may think, but just imagine. Everything happens for a reason, right? "You know, maybe it would be a good idea to check out that house again. I've been waiting to meet someone like you, looking for someone who'd understand, someone not afraid to close their eyes... and imagine." THERE IS SOMEONE IN THE HALLWAY
Oh my god, this is just so much nope, i can barely stand it. I actually always been wondering, are horror games capable of scaring their own creators, how difficult it is for their autors to keep working on them. I once decided to add some variety to my paintings and tried to draw a horror one just to see if I am able to do it. I literally burned the picture down half-way through, I was so scared of what I was creating, I just couldn't continue.
Great minds think alike I guess. I loved playing through this game. Experimental games like this can be very hit and miss but this one seemed to hit all the right areas for me. Unnerving.
This invokes a particular imagery that I find horrifying in a very deep, personal way- which is when people perish inside their homes and begin to rot before they're discovered. It's like the person and the home become the same biocontaminated mass... and then there's this sense of deep loneliness that comes with being trapped without help in your own home, because of it being your 'territory'. It's a starkly common nightmare for elderly and disabled folk, and it makes me feel a lot of emotions about identity and ones' connection to their home.
The strange recording of "Now I Lay me Down to Sleep" at 18:22 is actually from 1890, and it is taken from a wax cylinder inside an early Edison talking doll!
gfdi im only like 15 minutes into the video and i keep pausing and glancing around my room. it's dark and i need to go to bed soon because i have graduation practice at like 7 am but this game is REALLY freaking me out. Excellent job 10/10 not many horror games make me this scared/uncomfortable
I'm on edge this whole gameplay...I honestly can't take it an it's literally scaring me but I finished...on small screen...while readin everyone else's comments to make me feel better when the recording started screaming
This is the true essence of horror. Not jump scares, not gore, and not twisted monsters. It’s suspense. The suspense that puts you on edge to even be in a basement when there isn’t any monster there to scream in your face. Truly, this is well done.
When John found the distorted version of the first tape after the game closed I literally shed a tear, my body shivered and instantly had goosebumps. That actually horrified and intrigued me. The idea of a game closing and the dialogue changing when you reopen it trying to pick up where you left off is insane.
I really love these games that cause the fake crashes, it kind of transcends the game in a way and brings in to our own realm. It's a nice trend for now, but I hope it doesn't go stale soon.
Holy crap! this is how story based horror games should be :D I mean, you've played a lot of these games with long monologues or notes/diaries but this one is the greatest by far!
4 years later, and this is still my #1 indie psychological horror to date. I come back about once a year just to revel in it. When broken down into very basic terms, this game is just a key hunt. But the audio, the atmosphere and the intensity as you unravel the meaning is just A1. I wish I could see Kitty Horrorshow do a full fledged game with the budget of Layers of Fear. Nobody does it quite like them.
This is still one of my favorite videos. I love coming back to it. I've been chasing the scare "high" this game gave me ever since I first saw it but nothing has ever really come close.
I really loved this and want to check it out for myself asap. It reminded me so much of House of Leaves, right down to the recordings and weird cold descriptions of what's actually kind of terrifying.
As this walkthrough began, and I took notice of the duration of the vid, I wasn't going to bother watching this. All of a sudden 42:04 min have past and I am now in awe of this game and its developers. I love every single aspect to this game! Also, I laughed more than once at your comments, gamer man ^^
This masterpiece is psychological horror- No, horror in /general/ done right. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time just waiting for something to jump out at me but nothing ever did until the very end when the teeth showed up. I had to glance around my room multiple times to see if my room grew teeth or something. But yeah, very well done. I applaud the developers for this.
Ok, why? Why do I watch your videos at night? These are incredibly creepy, but this video is so atmospheric, literally playing upon my psyche. It's truly getting to me lol. I'm expecting a jumpscare, but instead I'm getting intentional glitches and total mindfuckery. This is a great one. I don't think I could download it myself, though.
This one was really unsettling, maybe because it makes the scary thing hit so close to home (lol). It's a whole different kind of home invasion, where your home is the one that invades your mind.
God damn. I've been subscribed to you for a couple years now. This is my favorite game I've seen so far. This is the first time I've ever wanted one of your videos just to be over so I could quit being terrified. Such a good mix of terror and sadness. Fantastic.
Very refreshing to watch. It's wonderful to see there's still people out there creating mind trip horror games. Wonderful playthrough as always John, great work.
This was insanely good. Just the way it built up atmosphere without using cheap jumpscares was superb. I'd love to see you play more from these guys, John!
Wow. That was pretty scary. And I really think that this was probably one of the funniest videos I've seen you do too. specifically about the "Oh I gotta sneeze, oh wait it's gone." followed by the "Oh I don't want to go into the basement. Oh I'm getting out of here!" Really great.
John I just have to say I will never get tired of how genuine you are when you play games. I love scary games and I love scary content and beings spooked is my fave thing to be (as much as I punish myself for it later ) So I deeply appreciate you not over acting your reactions to games, keep up the good work friend !
This is so good! There's nothing I love more than good ol' psychological horror, but it seems like it's hard to do right. I'd love to see more of this dev's stuff.
I have seen this series of your lets plays of KittyHorrorshow games a lot and I always experience a visceral terror whenever you enter a dark room. Just the way the rooms are built gives me such a sense of heebies and jeebies; almost like watching James shove his hand in that hole in the wall in Silent Hill.
Came here b/c of the top 10 horror videos John made. This was good; it reminded me a little of the book House of Leaves. If you have it in you to read a super long novel, I'd recommend it (but don't read it as an e-book). It's another surreal horror novel with a clinical, detached tone at times but it's about a suburban house that seems to be growing on the inside.
Loved this one. Gradual decay is an effective tool when it comes to psychological horror. This one started with an eye-rolling game of fetch-the-tape, but as it progresses, things starts breaking down. It somewhat reminds me of "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
I'm so glad you played this game, because I never could have. This is so intense! It's unbelievable! The tapes being so screwy was definitely a great aspect to it.
Ah, not to poop on the party but this is actually my 2331st video - there are 331 videos either Private or Unlisted, and don't count for the total. Sadly. But thanks all the same!
Really liked the refreshing eerie pacing on this game! Got quite a few good laughs around the upstairs avoidance too. I'd really like to see you play more from this studio they've certainly got interesting looking work so far
I think the game is so unsettling because you have limited vision, there's almost no background noise when you first start playing it, and the tapes mess with your trust of your actual, physical home and not just the home inside the game. The tapes get more distorted as you go on, almost as if you're losing your mind in losing trust in your house or some other symbolic thing. The monsters aren't the things that intrude or go bump in the night. The monster is the house in which you put all of your trust into. This game distorts one of the things we trust the most. We entrust our loved ones into our house. The reason this game is scary is because it destroys the trust we have for the house.
Or something like that, I don't know.
Also, holy shit. I was legitimately sweating near the end.
Ah, true! Didn't think about the combination of limited vision and building distrust of environment - that's a terrific combo I haven't seen before. Love games that bring something new to the table like that.
brilliant explanation
Wow it didn't cross my mind, but yeah it makes totally sense
as soon as it got to the tape in the master bedroom im like im not going to sleep tonight then my dog came in my room andim just....this game...this explanation is exactly how i feel rn....
If I had to criticize anything, I really wish the tape player bits had subtitles.
Yeah, me too. I tried to make it loud enough in the video and not talk during it, but even then it's hard to understand everything. I do think subtitles make full immersion more difficult, so I understand why they're not there, but I thought some of the monologues were interesting
+HarshlyCritical I agree, subtitles can really take you out of the environment sometimes, but with a game where the dialogue is really static sounding and muffled like this I feel like it's sort of imperative to have them. 😖
I think something would be ruined in it if it had subtitles. It seemed very deliberate that you had to completely engross yourself in the audio to catch some of what he was saying. There was also something a little unsettling in just being unable to find solace and distraction in his voice anymore, as that was the designated safe space for you when you weren't wandering the silent halls looking for new tapes. The whole thing was about waiting for the next bit of the story, so much so that it was unusually and very effectively stressful to no longer be able to understand it.
Good point, but then that could have taken away from the bits in the latter half of the game where you struggle to make sense of what they're saying
hexenmeisterdesbergs.tumblr.com/post/150335243690/anatomy-2016-by-kitty-horrorshow
Here you go, this wonderful person transcribed it completely =D
the scary part of this game is that it isn't saying that THIS house is alive, it's stating that EVERY house is alive.
Welp time to go live under a rock XD
@@GastArts The rocks are alive! :D
@@layersofsnark6347 WELP TIME TO LIVE IN SPACE XD
@The Smiling Demon SPACE IS ALIVE TOO! 😂
@@layersofsnark6347 DANG IT XD
That last recording was so beautifully written. The imagery of peeling paint, sinking foundations, the visceral decomposition of a house, likened to that of a festering corpse. As somebody who watches a lot of abandoned building videos, this really brought a shiver up my spine.
"Laughing and whispering to itself at the end of some quiet cul-de-sac."
"So hungry and so bitter that its scruples dissolve [...]."
Absolutely yummy stuff. I would read this game as a short story.
Try reading house of leaves.
@@mono.isgtds House of Leaves. ughh...I tried to like it, really did. M. Z. Danielewski clearly put a lot of effort into it, but it's the narrative that I couldn't stand.
Norianna R. N. Same. I only got to page 100.
Was there a tenth tape? Because Tape 9 lowkey triggered my fight-or-flight response.
This is both terrifying and heartbreaking.
This creeped me out so intensely that I jumped at 30:21 because that vague blurry shape in the hall looked like a figure sitting there.
I think that's a strong sign that you've done your job well when a game that has no jumpscares makes you jump at your own imagination. The whole thing reminded me of House of Leaves a lot too.
This may be 5 years late, but I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's read that book! It haunts me...
It was certainly unsettling, but I found it touching as well. Because of the analogy, I made the comparison of a lonely house to a human.
Completely agree, the ending monologue about abandoned houses was so sad.
Cool like you
Were supposed to
Sorry I'm like two years late, but here's a transcript.
FIRST PLAYTHROUGH:
Tape 1
“In the psychology of the modern civilized human being it is difficult to overstate the significance of the house. Since as early as the neolithic era, humankind has defined itself by its buildings; buildings for worship, buildings for socializing, buildings for protection. Even buildings for the commemoration of the dead.
Out of all the structures that mankind has invented for itself there is little doubt that the house is that which it relies on most completely for its continued survival.”
Tape 2
“The house is one of the key elements that separates modern humanity from our primitive antecedents. No other creature goes to such lengths to create lasting, permanent shelter for itself nor regards such shelter with such reverence and import. Why do human beings of our modern age foster this tremendous sympathy toward their homes? There are many reasons, of course, but perhaps it is due in small part to seeing them as a reflection of ourselves.”
Tape 3
“The anatomy of the house is such that this analogy is less superficial than it may at first seem. To carry it further, if we were to dissect a house as we might a human cadaver, we would find ourselves able to isolate and describe its various appendages and their functions in a decidedly anatomical fashion. There is even a fair number of direct comparisons to be drawn between those organs of a house and those of a human body.”
Tape 4
“For example, let’s examine the living room. Often the dominant space of a house’s ground level, as well as typically the center of activity in a well-populated home, the living room is very much the heart of a house.
While a human heart circulates blood to oxygenate the body’s extremities, the living room circulates people, activity, communication. It is the room most likely to be found ‘beating’ as active and vivicatious as its name would imply. The comparison is only strengthened when we consider that the living room is most commonly the room to contain the fireplace, making it additionally a locus of actual, physical heat.”
Tape 5
“It is easy to think of the kitchen and dining room as the stomach or digestive system of the house, though this comparison is tenuous. By contrast, the function and analog of a bathroom should be immediately obvious. The hallways and corridors of the house are its veins, providing circulation coursing throughout its frame. A staircase bears more than a passing resemblance, both physically and symbolically, to a spine.
The windows of a house serve much the same purpose as eyes, and anyone who has ever rounded a bend or long drive and come suddenly face to face with a tall, dark manor will tell you that it is difficult to shake the impression that the house, through its lifeless windows, is a creature capable of vision and intelligence.”
Tape 6
“The bedroom is perhaps the room that most eludes direct comparison in this fashion. At a stretch, and allowing for a bit of poetic sympathy, it might be said that the bedroom is not unlike the human mind. Those parts of it that dictate thought and imagination. In the bedroom, dreams are dreamt, passions are ignited, epiphanies are experienced in cold sweat at early hours. In the bedroom is where people invariably spent most of their time though comparatively little of it whilst conscious.”
Tape 7
“And yet, this analogy is an incomplete one, for obviously the mind is an exceedingly complex thing. If the bedroom represents the thinking, dreaming part of the brain, then it is the basement that represents those lower, unconscious parts.
The basement is dark. It is buried. It’s a place full of cobwebs where memories are stored. A poignant comparison, truly. Often the unnerving uncertainty which comes with considering the deeper aspects of the human psyche is not gazing down at the spilling darkness pooled at the bottom of a basement stairwell. It is a place we spend our childhood filling with monsters that will lay for years in patient silence. It is a place that, barring some specific errand, we seldom want to go.”
Tape 8
“Of course this comparison, though appropriate, is a very heavy handed one. Often the basement is nothing more than storage space littered with the corpses of spiders and woodlice. Though poets and psychoanalysts no doubt dread the thought of a dark basement, in truth it is the bedroom, the waking mind, that place of dreams, which is actually the most frightening of all.”
Tape 9
“It is here, in the bedroom, where we are at our most vulnerable. Each night we shut our senses to the world for hours at a time, trusting in the house to keep us safe until next we wake, In this state of extreme vulnerability we will spend something like twenty percent of our lives. Anything might stand beside us, watch us, keep us company until dawn, and we would never perceive it. We can only pray that the house will not let such things carry on as we sleep. In this way, during these hours, the bedroom seems less like a mind and more like a mouth. For it is here that the house is most likely to betray us. It is here where we place ourselves most at the house’s mercy and spend each night hoping it will not bite down.”
SECOND PLAYTHROUGH
Tape 1
(The same as playthrough one, although garbled and worse audio quality)
Tape 2
(completely garbled and inaudible, becoming clearer) “- Why do human beings of our modern age foster this tremendous sympathy-sympathy-sympathy-sympathy-”
Tape 3
(loud and garbled, same as in playthrough one, skips and cuts off at the end)
BONUS TAPE (in secondary bedroom)
“Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.”
Tape 4
(loud whirring sound)
Tape 5
(garbled, muffled) “It is easy to think of the kitchen and dining room as the stomach or digestive system of the house, though this comparison is tenuous. By contrast, the function and analog of a bathroom should be immediately obvious. The hallways and corridors of the house are its veins, providing circulation coursing throughout its frame. A staircase bears more than a passing resemblance, both physically and symbolically, to a spine.
The windows of a house serve much the same purpose as eyes, and anyone who has ever rounded a bend or long drive and come suddenly face to face with a tall, dark manor will tell you that THE HOUSE IS A CREATURE-” (cuts off suddenly)
Tape 6
“The bedroom is perhaps the room that most eludes direct comparison in this fashion. At a stretch, and allowing for a bit of poetic sympathy, it might be said that the bedroom is not unlike the human mind. Those parts of it that dictate thought and imagination. In the bedroom, dreams-dreams-dreams-dreams-d-d-d-d-d” (audio switches out like two tapes cobbled together)
“I dream that there are teeth growing all over me. And they’re on me and in me, like cysts or bone spurs. They’re loose but I cannot move them because I have no hands. I look out through the bedroom window and see a truck approaching.
A young man steps out, approaches, and enters through the front door. His body is covered in swollen ticks the size of quarters. He’s walking through the downstairs hallway laughing, he’s urinating on a wall, he spits on the carpet. He’s moving through the first floor breaking and upsetting things.
He goes to the basement and stands at the top of the stairs. I’m angry at him so I slam the door and he falls down. I can feel his bones snapping. The ticks are bursting, oozing all their dark blood everywhere. I can feel him being ground up, dissolved and torn, splitting and shredding.
I leave the door closed. I close my eyes and try to sleep. The teeth continue growing on me until there’s nothing left of me but teeth, gums, and sinew.’ (audio switches back)
The basement is dark.”
THIRD PLAYTHROUGH
Tape 1
(completely unintelligible voice snippets and loud interference)
BONUS TAPE (in secondary bedroom)
(horrific, unending screaming on a loop)
Tape 2
(loud whirring, snippets of what sound like breathing)
Tape 3
(static and repeated/glitched unintelligible voice snippets)
Tape 4
“If you were to dissect a house, you would find organs and stomach and veins and spine and eyes (garbled) dreams and memories and a mouth, that will bite down.”
Talking to player
“There is an important distinction that must be drawn between the words ‘dissection’ and ‘vivisection’, a distinction that would appear to be lost on you. Your purpose was to listen and yet at every turn you have pried, you have prodded, and you have interfered.
Have you not been paying attention? Did it not occur to you that as an organism existing in a greater organism, your intrusion would be felt? And still you harassed. And now like the wayward spider that witlessly settles on a sleeper’s tongue, you will be swallowed.
Because the truth is this, when a house is both hungry and awake every room becomes a mouth.”
EPILOGUE
“What happens to a house when it is left alone? When it becomes worn and aged? When its paint peels and its foundations begin to sink? When it goes for too long unlived in, what does it think of? What does it dream? How does it regard those creatures who built it, brought it into existence only to abandon it when its usefulness no longer satisfies them?
It may grow lonesome. It may stare for long hours into the darkness of its own empty halls and see shadows, and its heart may jump as it thinks ‘here! here is someone again, I’m not alone!’ and each time it is wrong. And the hurt starts over.
It may haunt itself. Inventing ghosts to walk its floors, making friends with its shadow puppets, laughing and whispering to itself at the end of some quiet cul-de-sac.
It may grow angry. Its basement may fill with churning acid like an empty stomach, and its gorge may rise as it asks itself through clenched teeth ‘what did I do wrong?’
It may grow bitter. It may grow hungry. So hungry and so bitter that its scruples dissolve and doors unlock themselves.
While a house may hunger it cannot starve, so in fever and anger and loneliness it may simply lie in wait. Doors open. Shades drawn. Hallways empty.
Hungry.”
Wow, ty
Omg thank you 🥺
You are an absolute saint, thank you for doing this. The writing in this game is downright phenomenal.
@@mistahchad220 I try! And yeah, I agree. Kitty Horrorshow is one of the best.
I just realized that he's not sprinting -- it's the VHS tape being fast-forwarded.
According to Einstein's theory, time actually does fast-forward when you run.
When the cassette tape's voice changed into the different voice describing the man that fell down the basement, I felt a shiver run down my spine. As someone who has never had a basement in any of my houses, I've never experienced something of that terror. But I have had the fear of trying to go downstairs during night. The stairs blended in with the floor and it was very dark and it scared me shitless. Loved the game. It really does fuck around with your mind about the connections to a house and a body.
Amazing writing IMO. Very Stephen King-ish in the way that the house becomes more and more "alive".
The developer nailed the whole "what is in your head will always be more scary than anything that can be shown" while balancing it with enough stimulation to build up the tension to actually stimulate the player enough (with great audio and creepy glitches) to have him running scenarios in his head which will get him frightened.
Oh it makes me happy, that there is someone out there with such a delicate understanding of fear and human psyche. I cannot wait for more of the developers work.
Thank you so much for playing this John =) I felt every "No, no, no....no I don't wanna...." with you ;)
Personally, I think it sounds more like Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House," with its legendary opening dialogue describing the inherent 'wrongness' of the eponymous house.
@@nerdiboy5128 agreed, to the point that even as someone who read most of that book (I got too unnerved near the end to finish lol), at first I was positive that the narration of the tapes was partially quotes from it.
(not at all a criticism of the writing! meant to be a compliment 😊)
Beginning of video: I'll give it a chance
End of video: *Curls up into a little and rocks back and forth
literally no better way to describe it ong
Am I the only person who gets even MORE scared when John is actually and truly scared? You need to play all of this creators games, it's the best being scared again.
I agree, nothing usually scares him lol
Agreed. When he's laughing it's hard to get scared, but I trust his judgment of horror games so seeing him freaked instantly makes it 10x creepier.
The very fact that the house was alive immediately reminded me of Monster House.
dude same
get off my lawn
Get off my comment!
Same bruh
"don't look back" "AHHH I looked back"😂😂
House neglect is a real issue people! Love your houses!
#endhousehunger
#dixout4housbre
Floyd Palmer Exactly!
Hey, I need some house - caring advice; what do they eat other than dangerous humans who disrespect it? The nearby prison is running out of sloppy burglars for me to kidnap and sacrifice and my house is getting hungry.
Life Glass
THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM RUNNING OUT OF
I could write an essay on why this game is excellent. The concept, the gameplay, the themes, the atmosphere are all brilliantly linked together. Kitty Horrorshow is an ARTIST. She deserves all the support possible.
You know, I was thinking that the only criticism I could possibly give this game is that the tapes are a bit difficult to understand sometimes, especially for a non-english speaker, and that maybe it could benefit from subtitles.
But then it hit me. It's on purpose, isn't it? All of it. The noise and muddy audio that comes with a low quality tape recorder, the voice speaking softly and calmly, almost whispering, the filters, the glitches. It's forcing you to actively listen to it, to pay attention to everything it's saying.
Just drop every single stray thought you might be having at the moment and focus completely on the voice coming through the recorder and every single word it utters. You assimilate every word and they nibble at that part of your brain that is deeply afraid of what could be there.
And then 14:33 happens, and if what you experienced before wasn't enough, now that you're conditioned to pay close attention to the voice in the recorder, now that your imagination is running wild, the game turns it all against you. Smart. Very smart. Terrifyingly so.
One thing's for certain, I'm never painting my bedroom red. And thank god I don't have a basement.
Agreed on all counts! :D
*talks about the creative aspect of the game*
*combats with "nah"*
Understandable, have a nice day.
I just find it funny we’re back here 2 years later
@@BelfryBatBones another 2 years later
@@KidAteMe1LetsBuildsAndMore Lmao! And still watching John, too.
This scared the fuck outta me. I have a big thing about doorways, the dark, and being alone in a house, so this was Nopesville right out the gate; throw in some audio distortion, unsettling glitches, and the great voice acting? Almost passed out from how on edge I was the whole time. Thanks for bringing this developer to light, John. Hope you play more of them so I won't have to.
Never thought it'd happen, but this game actually made the “collect the notes/tapes/etc” mechanic work. I was a little iffy about it at first, but it grew on me as time went on. Even more surprisingly, I didn't find the lack of danger to be a detriment; on the contrary, this is one of the few times I think it would've detracted from the experience.
Lots of strengths to this one: The conservative design of the house, coupled with the darkness, made for a disturbing atmosphere. Sound was used to great effect, too. Voice acting and glitches were easily the best parts.
I'd really, really love to see a larger game from this developer, preferably with a source of danger since I'm curious to see how they'd approach that. Definitely worth three bucks, and I hope to see more in the future.
As an aside, anyone else get some Silent Hill vibes? This seems like it could be a spiritual cousin to PT.
I get real silent hill vibes
I think what works in its favor is that with the cassette tapes its like youre feeding this machine in this house thats trying to both warn n trap u....like those things were popping up and in weird ways
18:21 the tape plays a children's prayer from the 1700s
"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my Soul to keep,
If I should die before I 'wake,
I pray the Lord my Soul to take"
I've got a record of the wreckage in my life!!!!....
"When a house is both hungry and awake.... every room becomes a mouth"
That line, that freaking final line is so good that made this game stuck with me ever since this video was posted, and it was because it left me actually afraid for a while, the fear you can't get with a jumpscare, but with something that makes you think about the possibility of it becoming real. Love it.
Also, the house screaming in pain as it deteriorates and falls apart without bering able to do anything is also very unnerving (29:44)
The lack of music in this game was a great decision. Really makes you tense!
Yeah, just after the first few tapes I started to notice the silence... the tapes are scary, but at least you can hear something. Then even the tapes start to betray you...
I've watched a few of your videos, and I have to say... thank you. Thank you for just being real and playing some horror games on face cam, like a normal fucking human being who knows how to engage an audience without being disruptive to the game. You got a new sub.
I have never been more uncomfortably tense seeing a horror game. Props to whoever was in charge of audio, because that's definitely what made some of the game's atmosphere excel in tension. At least it did for me.
Also fuck the tape at 29:43, that was the worst one. D: The fact that you come back to it later and it's still going fucks with me.
Yeah that tape was... REALLY fucked up :p
All I can imagine is one of the developers motorboating his girlfriends tities, and they just put a high pitch layer over it.
My first thought was that i was listening to what i imagined to be a narwhal orgy or something.
Trina Wolfy Do you know where the aliens are hiding?
I fell asleep while watching and I cannot believe I slept through that tape. Holy shit.
The writing was top notch, which is always lovely to see. The first section seemed too slow to me at first, but once the true horror section started I felt that the setup had been very well thought out - it gave you enough nightmare fuel to make the rest of the game really creepy, but did it in such a way that it wasn't that frightening at the time.
The only thing I didn't particularly like was the use of objects glitching out - I found it wasn't actually unsettling, and felt a bit too video-gamey, if that makes any sense. The furniture moving around and rooms morphing was much more effective on me. Personally, I'd love to see more videos on their games.
Scary if you have an imagination & enjoy the poetic idea of a anthropomorphized house.
Psychological horror _without_ a monster or "something out to kill or hurt you". And you liked it, John. You liked it because it was well written. It is horror based on human emotion of being alone & forgotten & unloved.
The concept of a haunted house has been done in movies, but always with demonic possession, evil entities, Indian burial grounds, etc. This was much more eerie... a house, empty & lonely for so long that it went a little insane. And it waited.
Well done - I would love to see more from this developer & will check them out myself.
This comment made me a lot more scared of the house
That idea of a house sitting vacant and slowly going mad comes right out of Shirley Jackson's playbook....
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
I love the Hill House
This makes me think of the courage the cowardly dog episode where a house shows up next to theirs, and the house becomes alive. They have to sedate it and stop it from killing them by re-painting and fixing the old house.
Now THIS is an example to the horrible Jeff The Killer 'game developers'. Actual horror requires time and patience, and even a story about a fucking house is scarier than a bunch of royalty-free assets and jump scares.
Frankly, this can go to any of the shit horror developers in general.
Nehpys Agreed.
also alot of game makers who think story is not a thing
outlast utilized both for me
Lol, can that shit even be considered a game?
I haven't seen you put "SCARY" in the title of a video for a while... This should be pretty good!
I try to save it for the special ones!
I thought it was a reference to the RED thumbnail. Red is SCARY. I thought it might be in mockery of an overly red game. Either way I'm hooked.
+HarshlyCritical I'm excited for you to play more from this group because wow! I like to watch you playing! You're much braver than me!
Quite ironically, this IS a very red game:) But it's scary:)
YotYotFive *shows elmo*
at 12:05 when he says, "...excuse me??" I was like nodding my head furiously because that's exactly what I thought, "excuse me? yeah hell no, out the window we go, death by a broken neck sounds like heaven by now"
A+ fucking writing like damn. the sense that the house is alive and is a living, breathing creature is conveyed in every word and the tone used implies abandonment and hunger or rather desperation so well and so accurately that you begin to understand exactly whats going on and the thought nags at you over and over, filling you with dread. I had chills the entirety of this game. The voice actors did a great job.
Shit, man. I LIVE IN A HOUSE!!!
"The house you are in is a house! Get out now!"
As a huge House of Leaves fan, I loved this. I'm not sure precisely what was said in the basement further on, but it gave me the impression of a person being like a foreign body to the house's, well, body. So of course its immune system would squish them out. Very creepy, and very well done!
As a side note, for anyone who has not read House of Leaves, I highly recommend it. It manages to give claustrophobic vibes through text alone. That's pretty darn impressive. It's an interesting experience, certainly!
I was on edge the whole time while watching this.
Games that crash on purpose and do that well, freak me out. More than other games. It makes me feel like it's messing with my computer and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the true horror. It was fun to watch this!
Agreed
Golden Freddy jumpscare
man one of the things that gets to me most in this game is the very limited lighting and just how every room is so big, so its just thig big black void in the center and you end up compulsively hugging the walls. It gets my anxiety going like crazy.
Timestamps for the tapes and audio
First Playthrough
1:17 - Tape 1
2:33 - Tape 2
3:31 - Tape 3
4:55 - Tape 4
6:03 - Tape 5
7:16 - Tape 6
8:49 - Tape 7
10:54 - Tape 8
12:27 - Tape 9
Second Playthrough
14:32 - Tape 1
15:39 - Tape 2
16:21 - Tape 3
18:22 - Prayer Audio
20:18 - Tape 4
21:11 - Tape 5
23:30 - Tape 6
Third Playthrough
28:17 - Tape 1
30:43 - Tape 2
31:05 - Tape 3
32:21 - Tape 4
32:50 - Tape 5
33:28 - End Monologue
36:01 - Epilogue
"Stop hyping up these rooms, man."
*door disappears*
"Wait, that's illegal!"
Jumpscare and regular horror games are fun...
But the ones that hit you psychologically are the most fun.
"I'm going back to my safe place, i.e. THE KITCHEN."
-goes to kitchen
-inserts tape
-everything is terrible
I also like how, in a game about the interior of a house, your immediate reaction upon hearing new rooms are available, is to try and exit the house.
Imagine this tape for an alternate ending, but with a different voice:
"Hey, there! You may know me from before, but that's not important. I won't get into much detail, but I will say this: I've lived in this house. Yes, this was _my_ house.
**sighs**
"If you're listening to this right now, I know exactly how you feel. It's dark around this time. You could never trust every turn you'd take, every door you'd open. All this time, you've doubted whether you were alone.
"You know why I placed this recorder in the kitchen? Because, when my thoughts overwhelm me, and I can't help but think of shadows around the room, when the little voices in my head grew louder each night, I'd sit here and listen to tapes. Just like you're doing right now. One night, I came across this one while I was in the basement. Don't know how it got here, but it made me think. Perhaps too deeply. Ever since I've played this tape, I... ohh, God. I can't describe the feeling.
"I was dreadful like you, but... I felt... some sort of loss or something. I've never really thought about why I would see or hear the dark things I would, or whether it was even me all along. Or whether it was even them.
"I kept asking this: What even is a home? What makes someone secure? What gives you warmth? Ever since I was a child, I've never understood why I hid under the covers. I'd face the wall, but there might've been something behind me. I turned around, but always hid so I'd never know what it looked like. At last, I looked at the ceiling. Go on, give it a good look."
The veins and stuff in the house fade away.
"Feel better now? I can tell you why: It's what we do when we think. It's sort of like there's an answer written somewhere if we look long enough. This answer would actually tell us why we're scared. Why we create the monsters we do when there's no light. Must be a part of the human condition, don't you think?
"So one night, I stopped hiding in the kitchen. I looked around the house with the lights off, just to get the feel of it. I was still a little scared, but I was so curious. What if the house was just as scared as I was? What's it like being a shadow? Crazy questions, you may think, but just imagine. Everything happens for a reason, right?
"You know, maybe it would be a good idea to check out that house again. I've been waiting to meet someone like you, looking for someone who'd understand, someone not afraid to close their eyes... and imagine."
THERE IS SOMEONE IN THE HALLWAY
@@greatwavefan397 Oh dang, this is great!
@@greatwavefan397 that last bit gave me the shivers XD that was not okay XD
Oh my god, this is just so much nope, i can barely stand it. I actually always been wondering, are horror games capable of scaring their own creators, how difficult it is for their autors to keep working on them. I once decided to add some variety to my paintings and tried to draw a horror one just to see if I am able to do it. I literally burned the picture down half-way through, I was so scared of what I was creating, I just couldn't continue.
Great minds think alike I guess.
I loved playing through this game. Experimental games like this can be very hit and miss but this one seemed to hit all the right areas for me. Unnerving.
This invokes a particular imagery that I find horrifying in a very deep, personal way- which is when people perish inside their homes and begin to rot before they're discovered. It's like the person and the home become the same biocontaminated mass... and then there's this sense of deep loneliness that comes with being trapped without help in your own home, because of it being your 'territory'. It's a starkly common nightmare for elderly and disabled folk, and it makes me feel a lot of emotions about identity and ones' connection to their home.
The strange recording of "Now I Lay me Down to Sleep" at 18:22 is actually from 1890, and it is taken from a wax cylinder inside an early Edison talking doll!
gfdi im only like 15 minutes into the video and i keep pausing and glancing around my room. it's dark and i need to go to bed soon because i have graduation practice at like 7 am but this game is REALLY freaking me out.
Excellent job 10/10 not many horror games make me this scared/uncomfortable
I'm on edge this whole gameplay...I honestly can't take it an it's literally scaring me but I finished...on small screen...while readin everyone else's comments to make me feel better when the recording started screaming
Same lol
I'm doing the same thing.
This is the true essence of horror. Not jump scares, not gore, and not twisted monsters. It’s suspense. The suspense that puts you on edge to even be in a basement when there isn’t any monster there to scream in your face. Truly, this is well done.
That was a really good watch and a very well written and acted game. Good job to those people.
When John found the distorted version of the first tape after the game closed I literally shed a tear, my body shivered and instantly had goosebumps. That actually horrified and intrigued me.
The idea of a game closing and the dialogue changing when you reopen it trying to pick up where you left off is insane.
My gosh, who even wrote that? There was a Poe-ish dark beauty to every line that was spoken.
KittyHorrorShow is a fantastic writer as well as game dev.
The plot/tapes reminds me of the book, "House of Leaves", while the tapes in general/eerie feeling reminds me of Sylvio.. I miss that game. :(
If you didn't know, Sylvio was recently Remastered, so there's a new version of it on Steam now - and Sylvio 2 is in the works!
Oh yes. Great game. Loved those teeth rising from the ground. Thanks, John :D
House of Leaves: The Video Game
I know right. A most terrifying puzzle of a book that one.
I'm still traumatized man.
I really love these games that cause the fake crashes, it kind of transcends the game in a way and brings in to our own realm. It's a nice trend for now, but I hope it doesn't go stale soon.
This game is soo creepy and unnerving. Especially the way he talks about the house being like a body...I just shiver.
I've never seen John so legitimately horrified.
Also I've noticed that when John IS so legitimately horrified he talks a lot less haha.
@@SetPhasersToFabulous Other TH-camrs getting scared "AIIIIIE" "noooooo" "auughhhh" John getting scared, "...kay." "...good." "...excuse me."
@@patricktsao9630 “no, this is good, this is great, i’m really happy that happened, i am” 💀
i like to come back and watch this every once in a while to see jon great really scared. its such a good game
google captions are actually so good at picking up the tape recorder lines, jesus
Holy crap! this is how story based horror games should be :D I mean, you've played a lot of these games with long monologues or notes/diaries but this one is the greatest by far!
4 years later, and this is still my #1 indie psychological horror to date. I come back about once a year just to revel in it. When broken down into very basic terms, this game is just a key hunt. But the audio, the atmosphere and the intensity as you unravel the meaning is just A1. I wish I could see Kitty Horrorshow do a full fledged game with the budget of Layers of Fear. Nobody does it quite like them.
This is still one of my favorite videos. I love coming back to it.
I've been chasing the scare "high" this game gave me ever since I first saw it but nothing has ever really come close.
Welp, i'm out of comments to read, so now i gotta look at the video again :O
Exactly what I'm doing. Haha...
Ha! Ditto!
I'm hiding in the comments too :)
33:27 I think this is the first time ever since I started watching John Wolfe that I've actually him genuinely get scared.
I really loved this and want to check it out for myself asap. It reminded me so much of House of Leaves, right down to the recordings and weird cold descriptions of what's actually kind of terrifying.
As this walkthrough began, and I took notice of the duration of the vid, I wasn't going to bother watching this. All of a sudden 42:04 min have past and I am now in awe of this game and its developers. I love every single aspect to this game!
Also, I laughed more than once at your comments, gamer man ^^
Seems like a great game but I can't fucking hear the tapes
Be VERY glad you can't...
+Andrew Bresnahan amen to that!!! It basically turns out it is the house talking to you!
WHAT A TWIST!
That's what I used
Yeah, some subs would have been good
I would love to see more from them, this was really interesting and gave that good air of anticipation for something to happen
Happy to see and hear Kitty Horrorshow getting the recognition she deserves!
I've been going back watching old videos and man, hardly see indie horrors this good anymore. It's now all TH-camr references and mascot gimmicks.
This masterpiece is psychological horror- No, horror in /general/ done right. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time just waiting for something to jump out at me but nothing ever did until the very end when the teeth showed up. I had to glance around my room multiple times to see if my room grew teeth or something. But yeah, very well done. I applaud the developers for this.
Ok, why? Why do I watch your videos at night? These are incredibly creepy, but this video is so atmospheric, literally playing upon my psyche. It's truly getting to me lol. I'm expecting a jumpscare, but instead I'm getting intentional glitches and total mindfuckery. This is a great one. I don't think I could download it myself, though.
This one was really unsettling, maybe because it makes the scary thing hit so close to home (lol). It's a whole different kind of home invasion, where your home is the one that invades your mind.
When as small kid used to be pertrified of empty dark rooms and corridors , this game brings it all back
God damn. I've been subscribed to you for a couple years now. This is my favorite game I've seen so far. This is the first time I've ever wanted one of your videos just to be over so I could quit being terrified. Such a good mix of terror and sadness. Fantastic.
When he runs its almost like he's fast forwarding a tape
One of the best one shots in a LONG time since stuff like Phobia and Bunker 13. More of this please!
Very refreshing to watch. It's wonderful to see there's still people out there creating mind trip horror games. Wonderful playthrough as always John, great work.
Ok it's the middle of the night for me, but I have an overwhelming desire to get off my computer and go outside now. So thanks for that!
Is anyone else reminded of the House of Leaves with how it goes on about the House as its own entity?
This was insanely good. Just the way it built up atmosphere without using cheap jumpscares was superb. I'd love to see you play more from these guys, John!
Wow. That was pretty scary. And I really think that this was probably one of the funniest videos I've seen you do too. specifically about the "Oh I gotta sneeze, oh wait it's gone." followed by the "Oh I don't want to go into the basement. Oh I'm getting out of here!" Really great.
John I just have to say I will never get tired of how genuine you are when you play games. I love scary games and I love scary content and beings spooked is my fave thing to be (as much as I punish myself for it later ) So I deeply appreciate you not over acting your reactions to games, keep up the good work friend !
30:05 it's the same scream sound effect that you can hear in dead mickey mouse creepypasta video but distorted
This is so good! There's nothing I love more than good ol' psychological horror, but it seems like it's hard to do right. I'd love to see more of this dev's stuff.
I liked the way the type recorder was distorted. It gave the guy's voice a trippy robotic effect.
I have seen this series of your lets plays of KittyHorrorshow games a lot and I always experience a visceral terror whenever you enter a dark room. Just the way the rooms are built gives me such a sense of heebies and jeebies; almost like watching James shove his hand in that hole in the wall in Silent Hill.
I can tell you were very much disturbed :0 this was very well made! And for 3 bucks not bad! Wow thx for playing!
Came here b/c of the top 10 horror videos John made. This was good; it reminded me a little of the book House of Leaves. If you have it in you to read a super long novel, I'd recommend it (but don't read it as an e-book). It's another surreal horror novel with a clinical, detached tone at times but it's about a suburban house that seems to be growing on the inside.
Loved this one.
Gradual decay is an effective tool when it comes to psychological horror. This one started with an eye-rolling game of fetch-the-tape, but as it progresses, things starts breaking down. It somewhat reminds me of "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
I actually wanna see more of these! You even looked like you were enjoying yourself! I was really immersed as well! Defiantly would like to see more!
I'm so glad you played this game, because I never could have. This is so intense! It's unbelievable! The tapes being so screwy was definitely a great aspect to it.
It was refreshing to see a game with this kind of quality! I look forward to anymore games you decide to play by this developer.
This game is art! Really creative touch with "crashing" and changing the next time it's opened to progress the story.
I can not stress how much I appreciate your face cam set up. It's the best.
That was deliciously creepy, wow. I loved it. Thanks for playing it, John!
this was awesome! the body horror description was my favorite part. holy shit. i really hope you play more of their games!
Really cool looking game. Those "glitches" were amazing. I loved the VCR tracking effect too. Most of all, the psychological build up was amazing
Congrats on your 2000th video! :O That's a lot of editing! XD
Ah, not to poop on the party but this is actually my 2331st video - there are 331 videos either Private or Unlisted, and don't count for the total. Sadly.
But thanks all the same!
Really liked the refreshing eerie pacing on this game! Got quite a few good laughs around the upstairs avoidance too. I'd really like to see you play more from this studio they've certainly got interesting looking work so far
This is fantastic! I was so scared, but couldn't look away. Please play more of their games please!