As we’re all undoubtedly aware, the 1980s were all about the balls-to-the-wall gore in the world of horror. This was my favorite era, when the movies were all about the special effects makeup creating the most inventive abominations the mind could conjure.
With that said, how in the hell have I never played a Splatterhouse game until now!?
WHAT IS SPLATTERHOUSE?
Splatterhouse started as a Japanese arcade game in 1988 and came to North America the following year for the TurboGrafx-16 system, and other PC engines, with minor changes. For the time, this game was unusually violent and graphic, even boasting a bad ass parental advisory warning on the box that read:
The horrifying theme of this game may be inappropriate for young children… and cowards.
Splatterhouse was developed by Namco, who is known today as Bandai-Namco and best recognized for the Dark Souls games, which have their own stable of unimaginable horrors. It is a side-scrolling game where you play as a hulking man wearing a jumpsuit and a hockey mask who marches relentlessly to the right and pulverizes anything that gets in his way.
Perfect! He looks nothing like Jason now.
If this sounds oddly familiar, the main character, Rick, was obviously designed to resemble Jason Voorhees. The North American version even changed the mask so it wouldn’t be the original white hockey mask, going instead with a non-specific purple one.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Splatterhouse received pretty mixed reviews, with some complaints that the game is too short, the enemies too predictable, and the story too simple. But nobody can argue against the merits of its visceral horror imagery and sound design.
What really surprised me about the music is that it doesn’t pull from heavy metal influences, as I have come to expect from games that focus on hardcore gore. Instead, the tonal themes are more classical in nature, reminding me of the scores from Phantasm or Candyman. I mean, the music for the game’s ending is a remix of a composition by Chopin!
In beautiful contrast with the music, the disturbing designs of the monsters you will be tearing apart range from classic shuffling undead, to poltergeists throwing furniture and knives, to otherworldly fetuses and full-blown gruesome demons.
[Oh, and I never get tired of slamming said monsters into the background wall with a board]
You don’t get a lot of weapons throughout the game, mostly punching and kicking your way through, but you do occasionally pick up wooden boards, a meat cleaver, and even a shotgun, which definitely help add a little extra mayhem.
SOUNDS LIKE A BLAST. WHAT’S THE STORY?
The original arcade version sets up a little more of a story than the ports, and even then it’s pretty sparse, but here’s the basic idea:
Rick and his girlfriend Jennifer get caught in a storm and take refuge in a large house that turns out to be known as the Splatterhouse, so called for rumors of fucked up experiments by the now missing owner, Dr. West–
[This just has to be a reference to H.P. Lovecraft’s Herbert West: Reanimator]
Film still of Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West in Re-Animator, directed by Stuart Gordon
Once in the house, Jennifer is taken and Rick is left for dead in a dungeon. A sacrificial mask artifact called the Terror Mask fuses itself to Rick’s head and transforms him into the beefy bad ass we play as. The Mask speaks to him and encourages him to rage out and tear through the house to find Jennifer.
SPOILERS INBOUND
When you find Jennifer, she’s on a bed surrounded by creatures. They all run away and Jennifer gets up, cries to Rick for help, and mutates into a demon herself. While fighting the demon, Jennifer will resume her own form enough to plead for your help, only to turn back into demon form and continue the assault.
You finally beat the demon, but end up killing Jennifer in the process. She dies in your arms and fades away. Having failed to save her, Rick continues his vengeful rampage into the heart of the house–
[Which, in this case is an organic, living womb]
–and promptly murders what seems to be the source of the monster infestation.
His love avenged, Rick seeks to remove the cursed mask. He finds his way to a grave, and the Terror Mask unearths a grotesque demon from the earth.
Totally inspired by old “Rotten Apple Head” from Evil Dead 2
Rip this ugly bastard a new face hole, and a mysterious spirit-head rises into the air from the grave and disappears. The Mask breaks, and Rick leaves the house behind to burn.
In the arcade version, the Mask reappears and laughs at the end of the credits.
The ending is presented as a bit cryptic. Some people say that the spirit that’s released from the grave is that of Dr. West being freed. I initially thought that it was the spirit of the Mask itself, since the Mask breaks afterward. Either way, it’s a very cool and somber ending to a simple but dark story.
END SPOILERS
WHAT’S THE LAST WORD?
I was highly impressed by Splatterhouse. I have always heard about the game and was familiar with its look, but I honestly had a lot of fun playing it. On that note, I played it in an emulator and took full advantage of “save states,” and I have to say that there’s no way in hell I could’ve finished the game without them. It is very hard at times.
Since the first one, there have been two sequels and a 2010 remake on PS3 and Xbox 360. Maybe I’ll review the rest of the series in the near future. Let me know if you would be interested in that.
Splatterhouse has been released lately on the Wii Virtual Console, as well as mobile devices, so you can get your claws on it that way if you don’t have an arcade cabinet or TurboGrafx-16 laying around the house. If you haven’t already, I definitely recommend you check it out.