10 Celebrated Horror Directors That Made Video Games
3. Guillermo del Toro
Game Credits: inSane (canceled), Sundown (canceled), Silent Hills (canceled)
Del Toro is a rare breed in Hollywood, from artful terror pieces (Pan’s Labyrinth) to successful horror–superhero hybrids (Blade II) and even Oscar-winning creature features (The Shape of Water), he stands as an uncompromising artist in the genre field, celebrated and respected within the system.
Less successful, however, have been his ventures into video games. A lifelong gamer, Del Toro has long been passionate about contributing creatively to the medium. His first attempt came with Sundown, where he served as creative lead on what was intended to be a zombie survival title - it was axed early in development after publisher issues. Next came inSane in 2010, a Lovecraft-inspired survival horror project that he was set to direct creatively, but it was scrapped when publisher THQ went bankrupt.
Lastly, and most famously, he was announced as co-creator and creative partner on Silent Hills - Hideo Kojima’s first foray into horror and a highly anticipated reboot of the franchise. The project collapsed after Kojima’s messy split with publisher Konami, and the game was canceled as a result. The infamous P.T. demo came from it, and some of its DNA lived on in Kojima’s Death Stranding, which also featured Norman Reedus as the lead protagonist and Del Toro as a supporting character in a fun nod to their abandoned collaboration.
In the years since, Del Toro has sworn off working on games in a creative capacity, joking that he feels he curses every project he joins - and now prefers to simply enjoy playing them instead.