Folk horror has been a part of British culture for a long time and, even though the term itself is somewhat new, the genre continues to be a popular source of spooky entertainment. A recent example is Alex Garland’s 2022 film Men, which recontextualises folk horror tropes to tell a distinctly modern story about gender. Much like noir, folk horror has several essential elements that help differentiate it from other works under the horror umbrella: a quaint country setting full of unfriendly villagers (or, conversely, inhabitants that are a little too jolly), fanatical priests, open fields, dark histories steeped in the occult and, of course, the devil himself. Developed by Cloak and Dagger Games and published by Dave Gilbert’s Wadjet Eye Games, The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow sees folk horror coalesce with the medium of video games to form creepy point and click gold – The Wicker Man finally meets Monkey Island in the union we have, in fact, all been waiting for.
The first thing that will likely catch your eye when starting up Hob’s Barrow is the game’s unique, pixel-art aesthetic, which falls somewhere in between Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Beneath a Steel Sky fidelity-wise. It is immediately apparent that this old-school visual style is not purely a budget restraint, but instead a conscientious decision on the part of Cloak and Dagger Games to invoke an acute, uncanny dread. During the moment-to-moment point-and-click gameplay, protagonist Thomasina Bateman and the residents of Bewlay are represented by sprites of varying detail. Bateman, herself, is expressive and animated, while some of the villagers appear more as distorted, quasi-corrupted caricatures of the human form; like taking a photo of a person and viewing it through the smudged lens of a magnifying glass. The children of Hob’s Barrow, in particular, are strange little things, sporting beady black eyes and moving with the jittery energy of an insect. There is an indelible unease at the core of Hob’s Barrow’s aesthetic, and the player is made to feel Bateman’s discomfort at being in a place that is simultaneously so foreign, yet very much part of her own country – Bateman does not belong in Bewlay. The atmospheric tension of the pixel art is further enhanced by some truly gorgeous cutscenes; sudden bursts of intense detail that both shock and delight. Close-up portraits of the character’s faces reveal the ugly reality that lurks behind their deceptively simple in-game sprites, and nothing is quite as nauseating as watching the village drunk’s pulsating visage appear in front of you, blotchy-faced and mouth agape. Indeed, even Thomasina Bateman herself appears disturbingly stark in these sequences, which often give the player a letterboxed view of her shimmering eyes and thick, black lashes. The contrast between uncanny simplicity and grotesque detail is used to fantastic effect, and there is a wonderful tension created when playing the game akin to turning the last page in a Junji Ito manga – who knows exactly what you’re about to come face to face with? Either way, it’s not going to be pleasant.
Narratively, Hob’s Barrow seems to draw from a well of influences in order to create a unique story that focuses on one of the key questions often asked by folk horror – how does scientific progress come to interact with the ancient and unknowable? Thomasina Bateman is a rational woman; an independent, unmarried antiquarian who travels to the small countryside village of Bewlay to research the titular Hob’s Barrow for an upcoming book she is writing. Bateman does not believe in God, she believes in science, and therefore treats the superstitious villagers with a sort of condescending mirth. She is not openly hostile, or derisive (unless the player so chooses to be through dialogue options) and is also not beyond knocking back a few ales with the locals, but Bateman is most definitely from a different world, and chooses not to engage the people on their level. Like the point-and-click classics of old, the player character must do some questionable things in order to progress through the game, and while titles like Monkey Island used this to humorous effect, Hob’s Barrow uses these moments to reiterate Thomasina Bateman’s driven personality and single-minded attitude. Not one person tells her that going to Hob’s Barrow is a good idea, and some recount stories of how it has driven previous researchers to insanity and suicide, but all that (as Thomasina puts it) is ‘hogwash’. This character archetype recalls great works of folk horror literature like M.R. James’ story The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, which involves a professor of medieval history ignoring the warnings of old and unearthing an ancient treasure, and something unspeakable along with it. The question that arises is how do we reckon with the concept of rational thought in the face of the unknowable? Is the desire to have an answer to everything the first step towards our own demise? Our own human history is soaked in blood – a thick miasma of ancient and (what is to us today) pagan evil. How do the scholars, the ‘educated’ people of the world learn to accept these mysteries of the past? Are there some things that are just better left unknown? While Hob’s Barrow, both due to its Victorian period setting and wider supernatural implications, feels more akin to turn-of-the-century ghost stories, it is impossible not to mention the plot in relation to Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man. Arguably the most famous example of British folk horror, The Wicker Man is primarily concerned with juxtaposing paganism with the modern interpretation of Christianity, and for helping popularise the trope of having a village full of odd people hiding something from an outsider. While the initial narrative comparison is obvious, Hob’s Barrow introduces an interesting spin on things by pitting atheism against a corrupted form of Christianity (instead of placing a religious character within a pagan setting). Bewlay’s priest, Frederick Roache, ended up being one of my favourite characters for purely this reason – he is an openly friendly, light-hearted man of God, but your first encounter with him is via a disturbing cutscene in which he is struck by an inexplicable nausea and vomits all over his shoes. Subsequently, you are only able to continue talking to the man after you have let his blood using some broken glass – a cure that he fully believes in. I was absorbed by the striking, brutal strangeness of this sequence of events; disturbed by the initial meeting, comforted by the presence of a friendly face wearing a familiar uniform and, ultimately, truly shocked by what followed.
One of the key elements that helps bring the narrative of Hob’s Barrow to life is the stellar voice acting, which is not only period appropriate, but also pays attention to where the game is set geographically. Any British person is going to immediately be able to tell you that Bewlay is in the North of England, each character (outside of London born Thomasina) speaks with a distinct regional dialect. Indeed, the first villager that our protagonist interacts with is and an old lady at the station, who clearly states that ‘the inn is t’other side of the square’. Outside of the voice acting being appropriately emotionally charged and well delivered (i.e., really good), this focus on properly capturing a certain British English accent does wonders for player immersion and, I would argue, bumps the entire experience up to a whole new level – the exact same way I felt about how Monkey Island’s voiced characters added a whole new dimension to proceedings. I was lucky enough to chat with Dave Gilbert, who (as well as acting as publisher via his studio Wadjet Eye Games) directed the voice acting for Hob’s Barrow, and had the following to say about doing so: –
‘I love working with voice actors. I’ve directed the voice work on all of the video games that I’ve written and published, as well as a few other projects that I haven’t published (like Whispers of a Machine), just because I enjoy it so much and I do believe that I’ve become quite good at it. Every time I visit England, I meet all of these amazing voice actors, and I’ve never been able to work with them because, obviously, they all have British accents and a lot of the games I’ve previously directed required American accents – The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow was an amazing opportunity to finally get to work with all of these fantastic actors.
It was a bit of a challenge becoming familiar with all of the British colloquialisms, some of which I wasn’t one hundred percent familiar with – I would sometimes wonder if it was a typo! For example, there was one point where a barman asks for ‘three shilling per night’, and the actor instinctually read it as ‘three shillings per night’, but it turned out the former was correct and an example of a colloquialism that helped enhance the game’s setting. It’s not only that some of these were British colloquialisms though, but specifically Northern British colloquialisms, like ‘ayup’, ‘owt’ and ‘nowt’ – ‘I can’t tell you owt because I know nowt!’. I had to rely on the developers to help me make sure that these words were correct, as well as help me ensure that the British accents provided by the voice actors were faithful. Unless it’s terrible, I find it quite hard to tell if a Northern British accent is authentic – I was just like, ‘they sound like they can be on Game of Thrones, so sure’. There was a lot of work put into sending through auditions to the developers so they could pass the smell test, as it were.’
This careful treatment of the voice work leads to a sense of time and place that is thrilling, moody and, ultimately, terrifyingly realised. Great care has been taken through Gilbert’s direction and Cloak and Dagger Games’ writing/development to ensure that the player, acting through Thomasina, feels completely isolated. Our heroine does not look like the residents of Bewlay, she does not act like the residents of Bewlay, and she doesn’t even talk like them either – not even the act of speaking the same language is enough to find common ground. Voice actor Samantha Béart does a supreme job of imbuing Thomasina with a reserved, professional demeanour that baulks in the face of the supernatural, but also belies a hint of child-like wonder. When she speaks about her research there is an earnest excitement and, even though she is occasionally condescending to the villagers for their beliefs, Thomasina is a charming protagonist who you want to see succeed (or, in my case, just get the hell out of Bewlay). The strength of the writing and acting imbues her with a sense of realism – she is a regular human being with flaws, strengths, and a past that has shaped her character. On all audio and visual levels, Hob’s Barrow knocks it out of the park, and I would be remiss not to mention the moody music courtesy of The Machine. The Demon, who have created an OST with similar theming to that of Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks score. It is particularly uncanny to look over a barren English field and hear something that evokes a feeling I can only describe as anachronistically fitting – moody, dark synths that seem to emanate from deep underground, like a quiet evil seeping upwards through the soil itself.
I realise that, so far, I have written little about the moment-to-moment gameplay of Hob’s Barrow and this, in part, is due to the mechanical limitations of the genre. Point and click games are all quite similar to each other and there is little room for deviation when designing the ‘action’. In this instance, Hob’s Barrow is consistent and well-paced when it comes to delivering puzzles, dialogue choices, and cutscenes. Point and click aficionados will have little problem deciphering the riddles the game offers, and there are several interesting challenges that require the player to think laterally. I particularly enjoyed an early section of the game in which you must distract a villager so you can lockpick your way into a storage house. You know three things about the man in question; he is a great fan of the newly built railway station in Bewlay (which most of the other villagers hate), he can talk the ear off a donkey, and he can hold his drink. You can try and invite him to the pub in the hopes that he’ll drink enough to stay put, but this never works. Savvy players who have paid attention to the narrative will quickly remember that there is an older man who frequents the tavern and has strong opinions about the railway station as well. The solution, in this case, is to invite both men to the pub for a drink and get them to argue with each other long enough so that you can go and break into the storage unit. This puzzle is satisfying on many levels, but I like how it rewards the player for investing time in the world of Hob’s Barrow – the challenge here is to consider the micro-politics of Bewlay as a place, and the solution makes sense. Indeed, while Hob’s Barrow does little to reinvent the wheel when it comes to point and click games, it doesn’t necessarily need to, and its selection of grounded riddles means that most players will be able to figure out what needs to be done (which is especially important considering the game eschews an in-built hint system).
The Exacavation of Hob’s Barrow is easily one of the most impressively realised point and click games I’ve played in recent memory, brought to life by a level of careful polish, a considered approach to setting and place, and excellent voice acting. Atmospheric and creepy, Hob’s Barrow has a distinct understanding of the folk horror genre, and successfully melds its literary and filmic influences together to create a deliciously dark, creepy narrative that will stick with you long after the credits have rolled. M.R. James taught us, through his stories, that there is a limit to human curiosity and there are some things that are beyond our understanding – ancient things that we should leave alone. Hob’s Barrow is a fascinating interactive example of this idea, providing a story that we, as players, know will likely not end well. Through inhabiting Thomasina Bateman, we come to share her passion, a passion we know all too well will lead us down a path of no return. Some things are better left buried, but The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow isn’t one of them.
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow is available on Steam and GOG right now!
A code was kindly provided by Wadjet Eye Games for this review.
