Summary
P.T.was one of the most mysterious games anyone could have ever gotten their hands on. The thrilling and terrifying psychological experience has become one of the must-play games of all time despite how tough it is to actually play now. A large part of the playable teaser’s allure for many people was the mystery surrounding the events. There were a lot of horrifying moments, but there were hints of a larger story at play.
At this point, everyone is aware that the famedP.T.was actually a playable teaser for what was intended to be a newSilent Hillgame. Sadly, that game would fail to see the light of day thanks to the issues between Hideo Kojima and Konami. Despite that and the fact that the game has been delisted, the passion that fans have for it has seemingly never waned, something that makes it the perfect potential low-budget horror movie.
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PT Became An Instant Hit Among Gamers
When it first hitthe PlayStation online storein August 2014,P.T.almost instantly became a smash hit among gamers. Fitting perfectly into the rise of horror lets plays on YouTube,P.T.could be said to have come at the perfect time, and the mysterious nature of the game only added to that. While terror was on display with every loop through the game’s claustrophobic setting, the difficulty of getting to whatever the end of the game held managed to bring players across the world together. Entire communities began totackle the obtuse puzzles of each looptogether until slowly, people began getting to the end of the horrific experience.
Being stalked by Lisa and enduring all the weirdness that came with that haunting continued to drive players forward. As a few key people managed to seeP.T.through to the end, the excitement of potentially beating the game just caused new waves of people to give the game another try. All of that was compounded by the fact that the game itself turned out to not be some incredible indie game experience, but instead, a fully playable teaser trailer and essentially a formal announcement of anotherSilent Hillgame helmed by Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro, and starring belovedThe Walking Deadstar Norman Reedus.
PT Was Lauded For Its Atmosphere And Storytelling
There was a lot for the average gamer to love aboutP.T., but two of the largest draws werethe atmosphere and storytellingfound within the short teaser. As long as someone knew exactly what they were doing, the game barely took fifteen minutes to beat, and yet people poured hours into the game thanks to how spooky those hallways were and thanks to how shocking the hidden story was. Those who weren’t paying close attention or were just too afraid to continue at certain points were certain to miss out on the story housed withinP.T..
Immediately, the game sets up what seems to be some kind ofdimensional gates or universal travelthrough doorways and poses the question of whether or not you are the only version of yourself. All of that before even getting to play anything sets the player up with all kinds of questions, and waking up to walk through a door into a seemingly endless loop of the same hallways and doors only furthers that. The entire experience is constantly bathed in dim lighting or next to no light the entire time, and it evokes the feeling that you are constantly being watched, although that is because that’s true.
Throughout the series of haunting loops, the player is never farfrom the ghostly Lisa, a being with a singular interest in punishing the player. That sounds simplistic at first, but if you manage to uncover and decipher the story, it becomes clear that the back story is much darker than anyone could have ever thought. As the player progresses, it becomes clear that the key events center around a series of murders that fathers committed against their families, including a woman who was pregnant at the time of the murder. The being Lisa, a murder victim, feels the player is responsible for her fate, something made especially clear when paired with the numbers and narration coming from the radio. The player discovers that Lisa’s husband was driven mad by something and turned to murder before eventually winding up dead as well.
PT Could Have Made A Great Low-Budget Adaptation
Considering the description ofP.T.’sstory is so much more than just what’s already been covered, it makes it clear that, while a short experience,the game has potential for adaptation. Taking place in a singular location outside of its final scene, featuring only a few characters, and not requiring much if any CGI,P.T.really would make for a great low-budget adaptation for horror fans. The story wouldn’t need to be changed all that much, and the creative team behind the adaptation would have a lot of storytelling options.
It would be possible for a team to attempt to recapture the events ofP.T.through the use of nothing more than two characters, the protagonist and Lisa. The story could function much in the same way, though it would require some serious liberties in order to reach a feature-length runtime despite the bottled nature of the film. Setting up the idea of the loops early on could make it clear that the protagonist has to get to the bottom of something before he’s able to escape his unique fate, although this would likely require the protagonist to be trapped in an entire house instead of just a single set of hallways. Realistically, the entire movie could exist as a prequel toa newSilent Hillmovieas it could end in the exact same way, with the protagonist escaping into what is almost certainlySilent Hill.
At the same time, a team could put in a lot more work to flesh out the story in a more straightforward way in order to make the experience more accessible. The more cryptic aspects of the story involving the previous murders could be shown through flashbacks, something that could allow audiences to empathize with Lisa. This would also allow for the story to naturally reach its feature length without too many major changes needing to take place. Additionally, the movie could dabble into other kinds of horror, with the main plotfocusing on psychological horrorand jump scares and the flashbacks acting as more of a twisted slasher.
