Silent Hill creator unveils Slitterhead

The Game Awards 2021 turned the heads of many a horror fan with sneak peeks at Alan Wake II and Hellblade: Senua’s Saga, but nothing churned the gut quite like the trailer for the upcoming horror game Slitterhead. Currently being developed by the original Silent Hill’s creator, Keiichiro Toyama, Slitterhead incorporates psychological and body horror with a dense urban cityscape that strongly resembles Hong Kong. The trailer needs to be seen to be believed:

Wicked City

Slitterhead is the first project of Bokeh Studios, Toyama’s new game development company. The trailer alone tells us that Toyama is diving back into the horror genre, although unlike Silent Hill, Slitterhead seems to emphasize action and body horror than the psychological aspect. One of the characters seemingly produces a blood sword to slice a monster in half. 

According to Toyama:

"I can’t go into a lot of details yet, but I can tell you that this will be an action-oriented adventure game from a third-person perspective. However, the game will include many new mechanics that have not been seen so far in other games, so I think it will result in a unique experience.”

Unique is an understatement. The trailer shows ordinary citizens in a fictional Chinese city morphing into horrific monsters reminiscent of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Toyama calls these creatures Yakushi, and shares that since they can mimic humans perfectly, players will have to find a way to “smoke them out to make them reveal themselves.” This can be an interesting mechanic not just for when you guess right but what happens if you guess wrong. Will there be consequences for killing an innocent bystander?

Here’s an interview with Bokeh co-founder Kazunobu Sato on where the company intends to go with Slitterhead.
 

When will Slitterhead be released?

Toyama has given a release date for Slitterhead yet, but has stated that Bokeh Studios will be developing the game until 2023. Likewise, there’s no firm announcement on what platforms it will release. We’ll keep an eye on this gruesome game and bring news as they come. For similar games to Slitterhead, we recommend you buy PC CD Keys to The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2, Silent Hill: Homecoming, and Dead Space.