After fading into obscurity for nearly nine years, EA shocked the world last year by introducing a teaser that confirms a new Dead Space remake was set for next-generation consoles in early 2023. Despite missing from the video game world for a lengthy period of time, Dead Space was the survival horror game that revived the franchise during its time in 2008. Both Dead Space and Dead Space 2 were critical and financial successes that seemed to be the new Resident Evil or Silent Hill of the PS3/Xbox 360 generation. Though Dead Space 3 wasn’t as lauded by fans and critics, the final installment of the necromorph saga was still a key piece of the franchise, good or bad. What makes Dead Space such a captivating series is just the incredible gameplay or scary monsters that inhabit the world, but the story that holds the entire saga together.
To recap, Engineer Isaac Clarke is tasked with repairing the spaceship called the USG Ishimura; however, what’s waiting for the engineer is a world crawling with monsters known as the necromorphs. From the moment you step into Dead Space, a sense of dread, terror, and excitement creeps through your entire body as you make your way through the entire spaceship. Dead Space is essentially The Thing and Alien for video games and given the level of craft and detail that went into the three installments, there are enough layers about the series that warrant a live-action mini-series. Now, video game adaptations don’t particularly have a strong reputation when it comes to Tinseltown, especially horror. The only video game-to-film translation that has a high rotten tomatoes score is Werewolves Within. Films such as Resident Evil (which is also getting an exclusive Netflix live-action series), Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill, House of the Dead, and Doom all have particularly bad critical and fan reception went it comes to films, and it’s justified for the most part.
Silent Hill isn’t necessarily a bad adaptation, but the reasoning that most of these movie counterparts fail is that there’s so much important content lost in translation. Video games are typically longer that five hours. Most of the Resident Evil entries have a play time (in terms of story) clocking in at over ten hours. Trying to compress that down to a two-hour feature length film is surely challenging as it forces the writer to abandon some of the more complex themes of the games to fit the feature format. The recent Resident Evil movie fails for the most part because it tried to cram way too into one feature, and given the level of content for Dead Space (clocking in around eleven hours for the first game), the television series would be better suited for the popular video game franchise. The slower pace would allow audiences to become engaged with the story and landscape that originally terrified audiences back in 2008. Of course, not every since thing will carry over from the video games so changes are expected, but going the television format would really benefit the large landscape of the Dead Space world.
It would also help add in much more story as well. We have some idea about who Isaac Clarke is, but there isn’t much to go on about the space engineer as we’re thrust into the action from the beginning. We don’t have to know every facet of Clarke’s life, but so much inspection about his personality would help shine through. It would also give more gravatas to the overall story arc that also involves Isaac’s ex-girlfriend, who was one of the members on the USG Ishimura. Plus, more spotlight on characters such as Kendra, Hans Tidemann, or Nolan Stross. Understandably, doing a horror mini-series could be tricky. Dead Space is more than just a hack and slash creature feature, but the horror should be present non-stop, not every time a necromorph or crawler pops up. Turning it into the mini-series can risk boredom even if the series is covering all three video games at once. Of course, it’s the writer’s job to be able to recapture that anything can happen mood. Dead Space always came with sense of dread. The haunting score, the creepy atmosphere, the video game manages to keep you on your toes for the entire play through, and even the jump scares worked to its advantage. It’s actually surprising that a live-action Dead Space isn’t in development because the series seems primed for the movie/television landscape. The track record for television shows is much better when it comes to video games, and with the right showrunner, a Dead Space mini series could be a true game changer if done right.
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