Supermassive Games is back again with a new game on the way, The Quarry, to be released June 10, 2022. This will be the game development team’s latest addition to its popular Dark Pictures Anthology series. The slasher series kicked off back in 2015 with the popular Until Dawn, a groundbreaking choose-your-own-path survival game that had a large impact on the genre.
The game makes great use of its butterfly effect, allowing for so many different paths players can go down including a tremendous amount of optional deaths. It is those deaths that break the player’s heart because of their emotional attachment to the character and churn their stomach with overly graphic violence that is given the title of most brutal.
Sam Stumbles At The End
Sam, played by Heroes Hayden Panettiere, is arguably the main character of Until Dawn. Audiences play a significant amount of time as her, and she is one of the most likely characters to make it to the end. That only makes it all the more brutal when she faces her demise.
In the final confrontation with the Wendigos, Sam is faced with several choices and some of them require the player to remain perfectly still. Failure to do so leads to the Wendigo skewering her through the chest in a bloody fashion. Making it to the finale only to fail so close to the finish line makes this death extra brutal to the player who has gone through it to keep one of the best characters alive for so long.
Ashley Gets Tricked
Ashley’s brutal death comes by way of vocal deception. Unless the player was going the extra mile by reading the notes found in the games menu, they wouldn’t know that the Wendigo can disguise its voice. Thinking she is coming to the rescue of her friends, Ashley falls victim to this trick and the result is deadly.
Not playing fair, the Wendigo twists Ashley’s head off in a stomach-churning way before tossing her decapitated head aside. The overtly horrific sight of Ashley’s decapitated head and lifeless body being dragged off contrasted with her role as the innocent and near helpless damsel in distress is what makes this death so brutal and difficult to watch. Violently dismembering a mostly likable character through deception is enough to make a player’s controller fly.
Chris Loses His Head
Unfortunately, Chris is a character that is difficult to keep alive throughout the entirety of the game just based on how many opportunities there are for him to be killed. Whether tricked by the Wendigo or an incorrect button push, each instance causes him to lose his head to the Wendigo in a slash of bloody horror.
Chris is another character who often finds himself in the heroic role of the game, often tasked with helping and protecting the others characters he is with. This role adds to the emotional connection the player has with this character which is excruciating when those heroics still aren’t able to save him. In the end, it makes his death all the more heartbreaking for players.
Emily – “My Eyes!”
Emily is a character neither heroic nor likable, so most players may not be too broken up to see the character meet her end. However, the game does offset that by the brutal nature of her deaths. While trying to escape a pursuing Wendigo, the player must correctly time a few button prompts and remain still when hiding. If that player can’t hold the controller still, then the Wendigo will find Emily and jam its razor-sharp claws through her eyes.
The excessive blood spurting from the painful death delivers a brutal final blow. This death is so violent and painful that it’s sure to make anybody cringe at the thought of having their own eyes gauged. However, the relatively low impact this death can have on the story and the lack of emotional attachment to or likability of the character puts this death rather low on the list.
Josh – Saw
This brutal death isn’t a death. Later in the game, the player finds out that Josh, played by Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek, is the one behind much of the disturbing happenings around the cottage, including faking his death.
Although it turns out not to be real, Josh getting sawed in half before Ashley and Chris is still an extremely unsettling sight for the player. One of the most graphic and blood-soaked sequences shocks the player who is now realizing what they are getting themselves into with this game. It’s a key scene that the player must come across and, given the right choice, is the first exposure to the consequences of the player’s actions that sets the stage for the rest of the story. The impact and importance that this death has on the player makes this one an extra brutal death.
Jess’ Jaw Dropper
Jess is one of the first deaths that can occur but may likely happen off-screen (even then, discovering her disfigured corpse is still shocking). If she does happen to make it later in the game you can witness her gruesome end.
Like many of the others, Jess’ death comes at the hands of the Wendigo. If caught, the monster rips off the bottom of Jess’ jaw in a uniquely disturbing way. Just seeing her disfigured corpse is already hard on the eyes, but watching how it got that way is even more difficult. This death was bloody, graphic, painful and an important introduction to the capabilities of the monster that hunts the game’s protagonists.
Josh – Head Crush
This death comes pretty late in the game after the player has learned of Josh’s vengeful practical joke on his friends and his fragile mental state. At this point, Josh hasn’t garnered much sympathy from the player but that doesn’t stop it from being less brutal.
Briefly playing as Josh, the Wendigo pops up from the water below him to hunt its prey. Just before his head is pulverized, Josh spots the tattoo on the Wendigo, realizing the monster is his sister which gives an extra layer of torment to the act. Josh’s evil deeds may not have made the player very sad to see him go but there is no denying the heartache in seeing someone who has been consumed by their inner demons meet an equally ugly physical end.
Hanging Out With Matt
Matt is the recipient of two of the most horrific deaths in Until Dawn. He doesn’t get as much screen time as many of the others but can be one of the noblest. Unfortunately, it doesn’t necessarily pay off for him.
Getting bossed around by Emily and, depending on your choices, even saving her through all his hard work makes Matt a likable character that will most likely have the player routing for him. But that won’t stop the Wendigo. If unprepared, the Wendigo gives Matt a new place to hang around by sticking him on a meat hook, throat first. The spewing blood from such a fragile area of the body is enough to make the player’s own throat a bit tight just watching.
Emily – Into The Meat Grinder
Emily, who is played by Superstore actress Cheyenne Lee, doesn’t just meet one terrible demise on this list, but two. In case the player made it past the first chance at a brutal demise, this other terrible fate may have finally put a stop to Emily’s incessant whining.
Also taking place while on the run from the Wendigo, the player must make several quick decisions that can lead Emily to salvation or doom her to her grave. One of those regrettable choices lands her in a meat grinder, literally. Jammed into the spinning blades, Emily’s bloodcurdling screams as her lower half is ripped to shreds as she suffers what would arguably be the most painful death in the game.
Matt – Face-Off
Sadly, one of the most unproblematic and hard-to-hate characters, Matt, is the recipient of the most brutal death in the game. This one is a rarer death for players to receive as it is very dependent on previous choices but some players may not regret missing it due to how violent it is.
This death comes from when he’s traveling through the tunnels and needs to hide from the Wendigo. A mistimed button prompt leads to his discovery and the Wendigo finishes him off with a bloodcurdling blow to the head which rips off his face. The graphic picture of the good-natured Matt’s torn-off face checks both boxes of criteria for brutality, making this death the hardest to stomach in the game.
