Kinodom Productions, the movie makers behind the excellent Papers, Please short film, have released their next project: an official film for Beholder, the bleak surveillance game about betraying your neighbours to please the all-powerful Ministry.
You can watch the film in full above. It's black and white and depressing as hell, and follows the story of one landlord asked to spy on his tenants to make sure they aren't doing anything illegal (spoiler: they are), all the while trying to help his sick daughter.
You'll either love or hate the art style, in which whites are eye-burningly bright, making the landlord's tie and set of keys shine like beacons (I'm a fan, personally). It has almost no sound other than the haunting music—a single track that ebbs and flows to match what's happening on screen for the full eight minutes.
If you played Beholder you'll immediately draw parallels between the game and the film, and even if you didn't play, it's worth a watch.
To find out more about the game, read Andy's take here. A sequel came out in December.
Thanks, RPS.
Orwellian snoop ’em up Beholder is an uncomfortable game to play, and I feel this official live-action short from Kinodom Films captures some of its uneasy tension. Produced by the same crew that gave us the live-action Papers, Please film, this one goes the near-silent route, steadily escalating music aside. As in the game, a landlord turned snoop spies on his tenants, and tries to decide whether he should use his knowledge to win favour with the government, extort money through blackmail or help his own family directly. Give it a watch, as we’ve handily embedded it below.