Zdzisław Beksiński’s Artwork Needs A Scorn-Styled Indie Horror

As far back as I can remember, nightmares have exposed me to a variety of monsters, surrealist wastelands, and a crippling dread of trying to escape the two. This is why, upon coming across Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński, I instantly connected to the creative’s horrific imagery, abstract style, and bizarre, dystopian landscapes, because he brought to life the otherworldly scenes I had encountered subconsciously. Skeletal deformations, eldritch gateways, and haunting ruins carve the Baroque artist’s unique staple, but his concepts also lay intriguing groundwork for an indie horror game.

In 2022, Serbian developer Ebb Software released the survival horror adventure Scorn, inspired by the work of Alien concept artist H.R. Giger and Beksiński – we praised the title’s “powerful visual design and atmosphere” in our review. Human anatomy was certainly on show within a title designed to turn the strongest stomachs, with living, techno-organic edifices and weapons made of flesh, muscle, and bone – not to mention the gossamer patterns that were quick to set off anyone’s trypophobia. However, Scorn carried more of a Prometheus vibe, and felt claustrophobic like the inside of the Nostromo. Aside from the gothic style, the game rarely captured the bleak, apocalyptic elements featured in Beksiński’s pieces, which is why his body of work deserves its own game.

Beksiński’s Horror Game Could Function Like An Indie Elden Ring

The most famous, and arguably the most popular, wasteland exploration in video games is confidently Bethesda’s Fallout franchise, but barren badlands can also be found in horror writer Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, sci-fi film Vesper, and FromSoftware’s Elden Ring – albeit more fantastical. These projects also share a similar artistic atmosphere with Beksiński’s paintings. There’s a dream-like quality to his work because of the featured entities’ grotesque, abstract forms and the unsettling environments they inhabit, and Elden Ring could co-exist in the same dreamscape, suggesting this artist needs a gaming expanse of his own.

Starting with the map, Beksiński’s horror game could function similarly to Elden Ring’s single-player mechanics that refused to nudge you in the right direction. Throwing you out into no man’s land – with towering, humanoid archways, decaying houses, and curious, blue-lit portals on sandy, rustic stretches – to navigate and discover for yourself, without any clear motive or purpose, would also play into the nightmarish oppression of being trapped within a delusion. There would be plenty of materials to collect for crafting anatomical weapons: bones, natural ingredients leftover from the fallout, tools from past civilizations, and mythical objects dropped by the more ethereal beings dotted around the expanse.

Moving onto the enemies you’d encounter in this realm, Beksiński doesn’t just draw from one creature pool. Sure, there are several cadaverous figures either decorating architecture, clustered together to make one abomination, or invoking fear as a solo entity, but the range of monstrous critters transcends H.R. Giger’s influence. Childlike vestiges, cloaked incubus, baboon-like pawns, even zombies, and giant heads buried in the desert – the latter of which would make a fitting boss fight – would all populate an original, thrilling roster of hostels. Keeping in line with Elden Ring, giving these creatures the same unforgiving skills as Soulslike enemies would only elevate the fear of venturing into these lands and encountering one.

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Beksiński’s “Cursed Paintings” Could Exist In Dark Souls Lore

Beksiński’s work was often referred to as “cursed paintings” because they not only leaned into the disturbed unconsciousness but also carried sadomasochistic themes and contradicted artistic trends by honing a hellish alternative to the baroque movement. Afterwards, Beksiński transitioned to gothic but retained the sinister elements he became famous for like deformed heads and grand but grim structures isolated in the dust bowl. These themes present a chance to carve a unique thread of lore to string all of Beksiński’s visions together, similar to dark fantasy mythos in Soulslike titles. However, the game couldn’t become too far removed from its nonsensical, dreamlike origins, and therefore, a lot of wayward chaos would have to be retained.

Beksiński’s work has not only inspired Scorn and my own makings of an indie horror game, but his visions also influenced the point-and-click adventure game Tormentum and Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, which only attest to the artist’s striking imagination. Scorn’s release didn’t move mountains, but there’s a reason why its design lingers in the mind, and a Beksiński indie project has the potential to garner the same morbid curiosity as the survival horror as well as the recently released Backrooms game Pools. I’ll be careful what I wish for, however, because Beksiński’s monsters may even be scarier than Zant’s Hand from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess or the entire Outlast roster.

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