First up, not one from Scott's bag of horror, but one I bought last week - the Mist.

Perhaps one of the best modern horror movies, based on a Stephen King novella, it's up there with Cloverfield when it comes to weird ass monsters, but it's far, far subtler. Positively Lovecraftian at times, especially the tentacled monsters, but the real tension comes from the conflicts between the characters, although the film never loses sight of the real horror - the mist.

If I were running it as a game, I'd set the characters up to have radically different morals and agendas, crank the tension up high right from the start, and then spend it like crazy on assault checks for beasties (they rarely face one without some sort of loss), as well as persuade and dissuade checks made by the characters. I'd also be tempted to give the mist itself a survival point tally, representing the horrors lurking within, or else have a pile of weird monsters to throw at the players. Some of the survival point loss from the players should be in the form of injury, but there should also be a fair amount of sanity - and hope - loss in there too.

Tension Points Circumstance (p. 72-73): spent to increase the monsters' Assault checks and decrease the players' Protect checks. Also spent to increase Persuade and Dissuade checks all round.

In addition...

Type of Horror (p. 73-79): Grim Fatalism, with the small potential for an ending, although it's unlikely to be either hopeful or happy.

Starting Tension (p. 69-71): I'd be tempted to start it suitably high - certainly 5, maybe even up to 10. That way, when the monsters start appearing, it'll shoot right up to Lovecraftian levels in no time.

Mood (p. 71): should be very bleak and irrepressible, and positively claustrophobic at times. The players should have a really hard time choosing between staying inside or going into the mist. Limit I Did It! to heighten the constant sense of menace, although there should still be cliches in moderation, just not of the usual schlock horror variety.

One of the best, grimmest horror films of recent years, in my opinion. Not for everyone, though.

One thought about modelling this particular type of survival horror: how about instead of having a designated PC with its own allocation of survival points, a player was given a budget of survival points with the option to spread them among multiple characters? That way they could choose to play a hero who would almost certainly make it to the final scene, or could have a handful of more minor characters, one at a time, who would probably die pretty quickly, making for some easy horror. This stops all the cool, earlier deaths happening to NPCs, but still allows for a central protagonist or two.

I like the idea of a common pool of survival points, either for a couple of PCs each or for all the players to share - makes modelling the quick and messy deaths in such films easier.

OK, so it's been a while since I wrote a horror movie up for Dead of Night, but as it was Halloween last night I thought I'd share another one with you: the Host.

The Host is a Korean monster movie, blending elements of Godzilla, Jaws and Tremors together to make a bleakly dark comedy. The monster in question is a giant-sized amphibious beasty that is part shark, part gecko, made by man's pollution of the Han River in Seoul, Korea. After attacking passers by in the riverside park, the monster makes off with a school girl, and the rest of the story follows her family's (somewhat inept) attempts to rescue her. In turns slapstick comedy and monster mayhem, the Host is a great modern monster movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, yet still delivers scares and shocks along the way.

If I was running the Host as a Dead of Night scenario, I'd set the players up as the friends and family of one of its victims, attempting to rescue their loved one from the Host's lair in the sewers before it eats them.

I'd set the tension so that it fluctuates wildly, mimicking the film's periods of intense action followed by slapstick humour and quiet suspense. A lot of the action of the film centres around escape of one sort or another, whether its fleeing the beast, trying to escape its lair or the monster's own flight, as it repeatedly flees from the various factions hunting it.

I think the Host itself would be a fairly straightforward monster, albeit one with a fairly high Escape, representing its propensity to turn tail and flee into the river when confronted by prey that fights back, and the ability to consume its victims to heal itself. Survival point loss could represent simple injury, as well as capture by the Host, detention by the authorities or time running out for the hostage.

So, with those considerations in mind...

Tension Points Circumstance (p. 72-73): spent to increase Escape or reduce Pursue checks all round. Also spent to increase Obscure checks.

In addition...

Type of Horror (p. 73-79): Dark Comedy, with the monster's presence contrasted sharply by the mundane family caught in the middle of it all.

Starting Tension (p. 69-71): Start it low and mundane - perhaps 4 or 5, but it should crank up rapidly once the monster appears.

Mood (p. 71): should be darkly humourous, with the horrific carnage wrought by the monster levened by the bungled rescue attempts of the family. Reward bumbling actions and slapstick humour.

The Host

Identify 3/Obscure 7
Persuade 3/Dissuade 7
Escape 8/Pursue 3
Assault 3/Protect 3/Deadly 8/Assimilation 6

Survival Points: 4
Vulnerability: Starvation

Note the combination of the Deadly and Assimilation specialisations - the Host can spend survival points to double up the damage wrought, and then attempt to assimilate its victims to heal up.

So, the Omen was on TV over the weekend, which reminded me of a conversation I had with Ron Edwards the other week, where he said "so how would you run the Omen in Dead of Night?" So, this is how I'd do it:

The thing to remember about the Omen is that there's no obvious monster - for much of the film the threat is metaphysical, in the form of the lingering evil surrounding (but not inacted by) Damien. The horror is ever-present in the brooding (and growing) atmosphere of the film, and periodically explodes to the fore with the horrific death of one of the protagonists.

That said, the character of Mrs Baylock, Damien's sinister governess, and her hellhounds can be said to be the agents of horror in the film, and so it's them that I'd focus on as the antagonists. In terms of her powers, Mrs Baylock can be considered to be a Witch, the Evil Eye and Witchcraft easily representing the evil that she gets up to in the film.

One interesting point is that a lot of the horror is passive or reactive - Mrs Baylock clearly acts to protect Damien from those attempting to harm him, but doesn't actively seek them out. So Father Brennan dies as he is acting against Damien, Cathy dies as her unborn child is a threat to him, and so on. So the protagonists act to stop the horror, and the horror responds in kind by thwarting them fatally.

The Omen clearly falls into the category of Grim Fatalism, the Tension slowly but inexorably rising towards the end of the film, which sees a nasty end for all of the protagonists and the survival of Damien. To mimic this I'd prevent Tension from being spent till it hits 10, then all gloves are off.

I think the steady reveal of information to the protagonist can be represented by spending Tension of Identify checks, whilst the underlying theme of protecting the family, whether by Thorn's attempts to protect his wife or Mrs Baylock's attempts to protect Damien, can be mimicked by forcing expenditure on Protect checks.

The loss of survival points can represent all manner of things, but Cathy's slow descent into madness and death are probably representative of survival point loss: the loss of sanity and free will as the dreadful realisation of the truth becomes apparent (in the form of nightmares), ill omens and other nasty things happening to the protagonists (such as the attack of the baboons, or her fall from the balcony), and her eventual fatal fall from the window.

So, with those considerations in mind...

Tension Points Circumstance (p. 72-73): spent to increase Identify checks by the players, or Protect checks by the monsters.

In addition...

Type of Horror (p. 73-79): Grim Fatalism, with the players up against the ultimate evil - Satan himself!

Starting Tension (p. 69-71): I'd start it off about 5, and slowly but steadily increase it as the horror manifests itself.

Mood (p. 71): oppressive, dark and sinister. Everything should be stacked against the players, with perpetual dark omens and prophecy ranged in front of them.

Mrs Baylock

Identify 4/Obscure 6
Persuade 4/Dissuade 4/Sorcery 8
Escape 5/Pursue 5
Assault 2/Protect 6/Evil Eye 8

Survival Points: 4

Note: I tried to give her 6s all over the place, but couldn't quite pull it off!