There’s not enough movies in the fishing horror genre, that’s what I’ve always said. It could be the next big thing after the folk horror revival prompted by A24! Truthfully, I’ve never said that before in my life. Even more truthfully, even if it were the most popular subgenre of horror, I doubt I’d be all that clued up on it. You see, I don’t like horror. I don’t like the jumpscares, the gruesome murders, the whole thing. Yuck.
That’s not to sayI don’t enjoy horror. I know, I sound like an oxymoron without the oxy, but I likesomehorror. It’s just got to have a very specific vibe of tension for me to enjoy it. I love The Shining, for instance. Midsommar was great, too. Friday the 13th was good for the same reasons. When it came to gaming, Dredge joined this list.
I don’t mind more violent, gruesome, or shocking films. Saw is fine, as is Final Destination. They just don’t do anything for me. Scream and Get Out are not horror films, they’re comedies, and both are great.
I’ve steered clear of horror games as much as I’ve avoided the films. Only, when it comes to the cinematic medium, I have a horror-obsessed wife to compromise on our evenings’ viewings with. She doesn’t like games, so she doesn’t make me play horror games. Still, I try a few.
Alan Wake 2wasn’t for me. Neither wasResident Evil Whichever. I struggled throughAlien Isolationthanks to my love of the franchise, but I can’t say I enjoyed being stalked through the bowels of a spaceship by the Xenomorph. Nowadays, I just tend to avoid horror games. Until Dredge.
I was enticed intoDredgeby its creepy, chthonic marketing. I also liked the fact that it was an indie; it’s the realistic jumpscares that turn me away from horror games, rather than being scared of the zombies, nightmares, or fish. With an illustrative aesthetic, a Lovecraft connection, and fishing minigames out the wazoo, I tried Dredge. And boy, was I glad I did.
I enjoyed Dredge so much that it made its way onto myGame of the Year list. It quickly became my go-to game for relaxing on the couch, it helped mefall in love with my Steam Deck, it grabbed me in every which way it wanted and it pulled me down into its murky depths.
It hasn’t turned me into a horror fan, though. If anything, it’s reinforced my ideas of what horror I do like. I like creepy, tense affairs. The creak of my little fishing boat. The sudden darkness as a selachimorphic spirit bites off your lantern. The peril of stopping to reel in just one more fish before nightfall, and the achingly slow winding that precedes your reward. Inject it directly into my veins.
I would want an adaptation of Dredge to fit within these parameters. While the game’s intriguing narrative would translate well into a film, I’d be absolutely happy if the writers wanted to tell a new story. What’s important about Dredge is, for want of a better word, the vibe.
Nobody fits this vibe better than Willem Dafoe. His face looks like it was roughly hewn from a stone boulder by a neolithic sculptor who’s trying out a chisel for the first time. This perfectly matches the aura he exudes, a strange, gangly man who doesn’t ever do what you expect and definitely eschews traditional Hollywood beauty standards. Dafoe has leaned into this aesthetic over his career, taking character roles that interest him and pulling scripts apart to rebuild them in his image.
While you may know his name fromSpider-Man, Dafoe has a storied career outside of superhero movies. He’s also appeared in multiple fishing-adjacent films in his career, namely The Lighthouse and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Go and watch those two movies before reading on. I’ll see you in four hours.
Willem Dafoe could play any or all of the following characters
I think this is why my mind leapt to Willem Dafoe when I heard about a live-action Dredge movie. He could play the mayor, the lighthouse keeper, any of the weird folks you meet on your adventure. Heck, he could play them all, Mike Myers-style, and I’m certain the result would still be excellent. The only problem is, now I’ve got Willem Dafoe’s Dredge in my head, I can’t get it out. It’s burrowing deeper, deeper. Dredge needs to have creepy vibes, it needs to ramp up the tension, and it needs to cast Willem Dafoe.
Next:I Should Not Have Gone To Battahl In Dragon’s Dogma 2
