IN CONVERSATION WITH STEWART SPARKE
If you happen to be a fan of full-motion video games (a term used to describe live-action video games filmed with real actors), you will probably be interested in checking out DEAD RESET, a new FMV game from developers Wales Interactive and Dark Rift Horror, and publisher Wales Interactive. If those company names sound familiar, it is because Wales Interactive has previously published acclaimed horror games such as DON'T KNOCK TWICE, THE BUNKER, and MAID OF SKER, while Dark Rift Horror is the multimedia studio run by FrightFest regulars Stewart Sparke and Paul Butler. Sparke previously directed films such as THE CREATURE BELOW, BOOK OF MONSTERS, and HOW TO KILL MONSTERS, all of which he co-wrote alongside Butler, and which were all screened at FrightFest.
DEAD RESET takes place in a sinister laboratory located in a seemingly impenetrable location. The game puts players in the shoes of surgeon Cole Mason, who needs to find a way to escape from the facility while also endlessly dying within a horrific time loop and encountering a monstrous parasitic creature. Needless to say, you will die a lot of times before you escape from both the time loop and the laboratory, which DEAD RESET places you in. Daniel Thrace stars as Cole, with the supporting cast including Lyndsey Craine, Andrew Dunn, Andrina Carroll, Johnny Vivash, Dennis Rasaq, and HELLRAISER star Nicholas Vince.
The game was released last September on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Switch, so you can enjoy DEAD RESET regardless of which system you prefer to play your games on. Director Stewart Sparke chatted with David Gelmini about the gore-soaked DEAD RESET, and David made sure to ask him about every aspect of the game’s production, so that both longtime players and newcomers alike can gain a deeper appreciation for how it was brought to life.
GORE IN THE STORE - Firstly, why did you choose to create a full motion video game/interactive film? And how did the partnership with Wales Interactive come about?
Stewart Spark (SS)- I’ve always loved FMV games and spent hours exploring every possible path in STAR TREK: BORG and THE X-FILES game on my old Windows 95 PC when I was growing up. Even games like COMMAND & CONQUER had delightfully camp FMV sequences that bookended each mission, giving the whole presentation a bit of Hollywood flair.
I was already a fan of Wales Interactive’s work in the interactive movie space when they reached out to us in early 2022. They’d watched our second feature film BOOK OF MONSTERS and thought our brand of gory, practical effects driven horror would be a good fit for interactive storytelling. At the time, we were just about to start shooting our feature film, HOW TO KILL MONSTERS, but already, ideas were stirring for how we could approach an interactive horror movie.
It was a year later in 2023 that we were lucky enough to be accepted into the Interactive Film Challenge, a Media Cymru funded R&D initiative in partnership with Wales Interactive, where we attended a workshop on writing for interactive movies. We left that workshop bubbling with ideas and continued working with Wales Interactive and Media Cymru over the next year on what would become DEAD RESET!
What is DEAD RESET about?
SS - In DEAD RESET you play as Cole Mason, a gifted young surgeon who wakes up to find himself held captive in an underwater facility. Forced to operate on a patient to extract an evolving parasitic horror, Cole discovers that he has the ability to loop time upon his death and must use his new ability to unravel the mysteries of the facility and find a way to escape, or stay trapped for eternity.
It’s a non-stop sci-fi horror adventure inspired by movies like ALIEN and THE THING whilst drawing inspiration from video games like RESIDENT EVIL and ALIEN: ISOLATION. As a huge fan of the horror genre across all mediums, it was such a thrill to bring that passion to such a uniquely interactive experience.
How did you shoot the footage in order for it to be implemented into gameplay? And how did you find the experience compared to shooting a conventional film?
SS - The biggest difference filming an interactive movie opposed to a linear feature film is the sheer volume of footage we had to capture. To put things in context, HOW TO KILL MONSTERS has a ninety minute runtime whilst DEAD RESET has a whopping four and a half hours of playable footage!
Due to the non-linear nature of the game, the script was over four hundred pages long, with the player’s every choice diverging the script into alternate scenes, of which there were 339 to film. This was a real challenge for the entire cast and crew, as we often jumped back and forth between alternate scenes in rapid succession. One moment we’d be shooting a scene where Cole is flirting with the character of Fearne, tenderly holding her hand, and straight after we're shooting an alternate scene where the two characters despise each other!
Since this was our first interactive movie, we learned so much on the job and I’m thankful to have such a great team around me who were able to adapt dynamically to the ever changing narrative. Having a solid scene by scene breakdown and script going into the shoot was essential and this is something we worked closely with Wales Interactive on for almost a year leading up to production.
How did Wales Interactive implement gameplay elements into the footage, and how did you find the experience of working with them?
SS - Working with Wales Interactive was a dream come true for me as I’d been a fan of their games since playing THE BUNKER when it was released in 2016. Ten years later, they’ve published a dozen interactive movies, including DEAD RESET, so they really know their stuff when it comes to the FMV genre.
When it came to implementing gameplay into the footage, this all had to be carefully planned from the very beginning of the scripting process. Wales Interactive gave us access to WIST, their in-house, interactive scripting tool, which allowed us to write a playable, interactive narrative and thoroughly playtest the game as a text adventure before we shot a single frame. This allowed us to enter production with complete confidence that the gameplay and narrative already worked and provided a skeleton for the footage to be attached to. Once we finished filming, the Wales Interactive development team combined the edited footage with the WIST to bring the game to life.
Your earlier films are known for practical gore effects, did you use them again here?
SS - Absolutely! It wouldn’t be a Dark Rift Horror project without torrents of fake blood being thrown onto the set. We worked with the incredible GTFX team of Graham Taylor and Mim Williams to bring two distinct creatures to life, as well as orchestrate dozens of gruesome deaths. With our lead character being trapped in a time loop, we came up with as many gory deaths as we could execute, all with practical effects - there is no CGI blood and guts in the game! Everything from exploding heads, severed limbs to disembowelment, it’s all in DEAD RESET and all practical! Our amazing props master Gary Allen even built a huge miniature of the game’s underwater facility and seabed which makes everything feel even more authentic.
Can you talk about the cast?
SS - The cast will be more than familiar if you’ve seen our earlier work and that’s because we absolutely love working with these people! Daniel Thrace, Lyndsey Craine, Dennis Rasaq, Andrina Carrol, Andrew Dunn, Michaela Longden, Johnny Vivash and Nicholas Vince all return from our previous film, HOW TO KILL MONSTERS. With this being our first time shooting an interactive movie, we knew we needed actors we could trust and whom we had full confidence could handle the sheer amount of script pages we were going to throw at them. With over four hundred pages of dialogue and action, all taking place over alternate scenes, everyone did an incredible job, especially in some of the most physically demanding roles we’ve ever written.
I have to give special mention to Dan, Lyndsey and Dennis, who played Cole, Fearne and Slade respectively. They had so many lines to learn and had to film dozens of alternate scenes, back to back, on a daily basis. This was emotionally and physically draining for the cast but they never let it show and always delivered fantastic performances throughout.
Do you offer players freedom of choice so that they can manipulate their own outcomes?
SS - This is what interactive movies are all about! In DEAD RESET we give the player as much freedom as we can, whilst still delivering a cohesive and compelling sci-fi horror story. Of course there are only so many alternate paths and endings we can film, but each branch of the narrative has been carefully crafted to honour the player’s journey. If you play Cole as an empathetic and heroic character then you will experience a completely different story to someone who plays him as a cold and selfish character. All four distinct endings of the game are reflective of your personal journey and my hope is that you’ll be excited to begin your second playthrough as soon as you’ve finished so you can start exploring all the alternatives.
What I’m really proud of with DEAD RESET is how your choices directly impact your relationship with the other characters, particularly with Slade and Fearne. Playing as Cole, your choices could build trust, make enemies or in Fearne’s case, even nurture a romantic relationship. I’ve loved watching people play the game live on Twitch or YouTube and in every livestream they’ve forged different alliances and have everyone in the chat rooting for their particular favourite character!
What do you hope gamers and horror fans will take away from DEAD RESET?
SS - I really hope that people have an absolute blast playing it! We’ve designed a game that’s full of blood, guts, scares and action just as much as it has an intriguing story and compelling characters that get you sucked into the narrative. It’s a much more serious take on the genre than our previous horror comedy films but you’ll still have a lot of fun getting Cole killed in some very creative ways! DEAD RESET is a gruesome ride for fans of horror games but is also a great gateway game for horror fans who have never picked up a controller before. You can play it on absolutely every gaming platform out there, even on your phone or tablet while tucked up snug in bed!
David Gelmini