‘The Riverside Incident’ Disturbs With Eerie Found Footage

Horror titans Puppet Combo offer another unsettling romp through some lost VHS footage with The Riverside Incident.

In July 1991, a group of hikers finds a garbage bag containing a VHS tape. Oh yeah, and some torn up clothes. Instead of immediately going to the frightening place in question like most dumb horror protagonists, they instead opt to offer the tape to the police. Pretty smart move, honestly. However, some of the footage has been released to the public in hopes of identifying the folks within the video. Hopefully you can help in some way.

Well, that’s not terribly likely, although you will be joining our unlucky video recording on a journey through a disturbing place. Through clever use of VHS distortion, the locale is made even more frightening, using visual noise and fuzz to create this sense of the unreal, breaking reality. Things that should be normal hint at monstrous beings within. A section of wall or chunk of broken wall seems to show a face, yet you know it doesn’t. Developer Puppet Combo excels at using these effects to crank up the fear, and The Riverside Incident looks to continue to creep you out. Hard.

The Riverside Incident is available through supporting Puppet Combo’s Patreon.

About The Author

Joel Couture

Joel has been covering indie games for various sites including IndieGames.com, Siliconera, Gamasutra, Warp Door, CG Magazine, and more over the past seven years, and has written book-length studies on Undertale and P.T.. Joel is constantly on the lookout for digital experiences that push the boundaries of what games can be, and seeks to delve into the creative process, meanings, and emotion labor that goes into the work of artists worldwide.

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