An official Phasmophobia movie is on the way; we learned as much last summer. But what if I said you could watch something quite like Kinetic’s ghostbusting co-op game right now?
That’s the elevator pitch I bring you, fellow horror fans, less than two weeks out from Halloween. The movie is Never After Dark, a gorgeously shot, cleverly creepy ghost story that Phasmophobia fans shouldn’t miss.
Never After Dark tells the story of Airi, a young woman who can commune with ghosts. She works as a traveling intermediary between the dead and the living, convincing spirits to move on and freeing residents from their hauntings. But on her latest gig, she discovers she’s taken on a much harder assignment. And wow, that assignment looked really familiar in such a fun way.
Never After Dark has been described as a “J-Horror revival” project, recalling the ghost stories frequently imported to the US from Japan at the turn of the 21st Century. Movies like Ringu, Pulse, Dark Water, and Ju-On: The Grudge were a big deal in Japan and earned a lot of praise (and remakes, for better or worse) here in the States, too. I’ve never been a big fan of the term J-Horror, but I can see how it works as shorthand for that particular bundle of films.
Director Dave Boyle is an American, but he has spent much of his career making movies in and about Japan. Some of those aforementioned inspirations for Never After Dark are my favorites in the genre, and Boyle’s new film does indeed feel like them at times, though I was more often struck by how much it felt like I was playing a round of Phasmophobia. Even Airi, who works alone most of the time, finds herself with a small group of other characters, like a solo player hopping into an open lobby in Phasmophobia. I won’t spoil the movie, but suffice it to say that many of the game’s core mechanics and moments are reflected in it. Some scenes even feel pulled straight from the game.
Of course, this is partly because both Kinetic’s game and Boyle’s film draw on real-life theories about ghosts and how to interact with them, rather than the movie intentionally cribbing the game’s core identity. Still, it made me wonder how the eventual Phasmophobia movie might handle some similar situations.
Never After Dark is in theaters across the US right now, albeit in limited release, so check that it’s playing near you. Alternatively, you could also stream it at home soon. I haven’t seen any announcement about whether it’ll end up on any subscription service, but its rent-at-home premiere is set for October 28, making it a smart choice for Halloween weekend if you feel like you’ve seen everything scary and need something new.
I went into the movie because I’d heard about its nearly perfect aggregate review score and because I thought it might feel like something from my favorite director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It definitely checked that box, I’m happy to say, but just as central to its vibe is a fascinating look at what a Phasmophobia movie might look like–before we get the real thing in the (hopefully near) future.
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