They’ve somehow managed to take the nicest, cutest game imaginable and make it absolutely terrifying.
If you’ve ever played Animal Crossing, then you already know that turning it into something scary is something of a Herculean feat.
But that is exactly what director Julian Terry did with Don’t Peek, a six-minute short horror movie based around a young woman playing the game on her Nintendo Switch, who notices that when she performs actions in the game – opening a drawer, turning on the light – they also happen in her bedroom. That all takes a bit of a dark turn when she notices a creature lurking in the shadows of the game on the screen…
A very effective little scare-fest, it was produced during 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, before being screened at SXSW, and quickly caught the attention of Hollywood.
It has now been announced that director Timor Bekmambetov (who previously directed James McAvoy/Angelina Jolie action thriller Wanted) will take on the feature length project, but it is currently unknown if the full movie will revolve around Animal Crossing (we imagine Nintendo might have some copyright issues), or instead focus on the central concept of an evil video game character attempting to break into the real world.
Either way, if that movie is as clever with the scares as the short, we’ll be in for a good time when it gets released in cinemas.
Check out Don’t Peek right here:
Clip via Julian Terry
