Hotels in horror

[Sam]

I really like horror hotels and I want to know of more scary hotels in fiction 

A couple of months ago my friend Michael (same friend I mentioned in my Untitled Goose Game blog entry) invited me to play videogames in his house because he had recently bought this cool new horror game "At Dead of Night" and he absolutely loved it and thought I would enjoy it (and I did! I had a lot of fun and can't wait for the sequel!) which if you haven't played it's basically a game where you get chased in a hotel by the owner and you have to talk to the ghosts of his past victims to uncover the story and find a way to escape

Then a few weeks after that he told me that he really liked "The Shining" and wanted to watch the movie with me so he could tell me all about the cool easter eggs and symbolism and obviously I said yes (best movie-watching experience of my life, it took us like 4 hours to finish it because we kept pausing to comment on random details) and half-way through the movie I jokingly said "wow you really like hotels" because I thought it was a funny coincidence

But now that I think about it my friend was cooking and I was too blind to realize it back then, hotels are a really awesome setting for horror stories!   I mean you're trapped in a strangely nostalgic giant building that's probably in the middle of nowhere where all the rooms look the same, there are a lot of dead ends so running away isn't an option you have to either hide or fight back, there's a lot of corners, rooms, and possible hiding spots so the monster has a ton of chances to ambush you, you have to be extra sthealty because the building's size is both a blessing and a curse, you don't know where the mosnter is but the mosnter also doesn't know where you are, thousands of people have been here before you so there's the possibilty of a dark past you haven't uncovered and this feeling of "I'm not the first and I won't be the last"

Which has lead me to think, do you know any other kinds of horror media that take place in a hotel?

I remember getting super addicted to Doors from Roblox but I haven't managed to get to room 100 not even once because I suck at videogames, despite being a Roblox game I still think this is really good althought it doesn't do much with the fact that we're in a hotel, I think you could reaple the hotel with any other kind of big building and you wouldn't lose much aside from some awesome atmosphere because like I said hotels are awesome, I'm pretty sure Dark Deception takes place in a hotel (or at least the chapter with the monkeys does, that's the only one I've played because I have no money) and I really like how claustrophic it feels and how much it utilizes the point I mentioned about how the monster doesn't know where you are but you also don't know where the monster is and I really like the overall atmosphere, it really nails the whole haunted hotel theme, also the monkeys are lowkey cute when they aren't trying to kill me, I really like their outfits :) there's also the Hollywood Tower of Terror at Disneyland where you basically go up an elevator in a haunted hotel and right as you reach the top the elevator falls, I haven't went on it personally but judging from videos holy shit the ambience is so good, there's a lot of attention to detail and I love that there's an actual story as to why the hotel is haunted, I can't think of any other examples at the top of my head so I'm curious to see everyone else's opinions

[ffaf]

Trilby’s Notes, a very good adventure game in the Chzo Mythos series.
The hotel is named "Clanbronwyn".



Playable with ScummVM on any platform.

[grubbyfox]

I watch a lot of horror games on youtube (letsplayers). I pretty much watch 1-2 horrorgames daily, for years now loool. So yeah, I'd say there are def many hotels in horror games. Some are motels, some are hotels.

At Dead of Night is absolutely the best hotel-scene in any horror game IMO so far. I watched a few people play it back when the game launched, and it was so good. I've worked all my life in different hotels, and the hotel feeling from that game is so far unmatched, imo. It's incredible. Sure, the corridor layouts are a bit "weird" (to confuse you obvs), and I'd say, the kitchen area in the hotel is from the little we saw, too small for a hotel that size. Granted, it could have been larger/expanded/there could have been another kitchen implied somewhere behind a locked door (The door right across from the kitchen was always locked, right? I forget) and that kitchen in-game could have been an older un-used kitchen.

I've worked at one hotel where the kitchen was the same size give or take, but about 40 rooms (so in theory 70-80 people max in restaurant). I think At Dead of Night had about 45 - 50 rooms or so? So it's not impossible with that kitchen, but yeah. Lol That's the kind of stuff you wonder about, hahaha. Anyway, I've also worked at a hotel where they'd expand a kitchen, so you'd have a large main kitchen and a weird like narrow way to the older section that would be used when they needed to up the staff and food production for another section of the hotel.

Another thing I really enjoyed in ADoF was the dining hall with the scene. Gosh it looked so beautiful and eerie. The atmosphere of the entire hotel was truly truly mind blowing, especially if you've been a hotel guest many many times, or worked at hotels and seen them when fully booked, empty, closed, off season etc.

Here's a few other hotel/motel games.

https://rippers-lair.itch.io/psycho-inn


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2325850/Hotel_Mlancolie/


https://gamejolt.com/games/moms-hotel/976312


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2829450/The_motel/


https://store.steampowered.com/app/3351140/Limoria/


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2688570/The_InnSanity/


https://max-horror.itch.io/room-202

I've not played these myself, but I've seen others play them on YT. I dont remember which were good and not, hahaha but well, that's a few at least.

Oh and since you've seen The Shining, you ALWAYS gotta look out for the iconic carpet pattern in hotel games, lemme tell ya. You'll find that many will include it at some point. How can you not, it's SO gorgeous.

I used to watch that movie so many times as a teen. It was so harrowing and creepy. That intro theme is AMAZING. It really sets the tone. And I'm obsessed with that large kitchen and pantry etc.

Anyway, ADoN, again, imo unmatched in vibes still. That atmosphere when you walk out of the elevator and into the landing area on the floors. So hauntingly empty and liminal. The fire escape stairs remind me so much of one of the hotels I worked at, it was so similar. I really cant explain how well they did the layout and just in general everything in that game. It really feels like an off-season/empty/closed hotel.

I'll say, the InnSanity game, it's also a pretty good hotel vibe. I remember being a little bit confused about the layout and how it was supposed to function etc sometimes, lol, but overall it also has a pretty decent hotel vibe.


If you dont care to play them yourself, just find yourself someone on youtube who plays these! All these ones I know a letsplayer called CJU (on youtube) played. I like him because he's not a huge yapper/doesnt get annoying or skreechy/loud etc, and explores without wasting your time doing stupid stuff. Other letsplayer I like that are the same are ManlyBadassHero and John Wolfe. But idk if they played these, but they do the same genres many times, so there's prob some overlap.