Horror is something that Blumhouse does very well in its movies, so with its newly founded gaming branch, it stands to reason that its first release, Fear the Spotlight, would follow suit. From small gaming studio Cozy Game Pals, this is a love letter to a retro horror gaming genre from years past.

Fear the Spotlight stars Amy and Vivian, two stereotypically very different girls. Amy is your standard goth, obsessed with the occult, with Vivian repping the goody two-shoes nerd to a tee – she even works in the library. One fateful night, Amy and Vivian break into their school after hours to test out the Ouija board in the library’s occult display, and things go horribly wrong as Amy goes missing.

Playing as Vivian, you’re tasked with finding Amy, traversing through the school and solving puzzles to unlock new items and areas. Once you complete Vivian’s short playthrough, you can then experience the whole game again through Amy’s eyes, and find out what really happened to her while she was gone.

The puzzles themselves are mostly the same format throughout the game; find a clue in one room, travel back to the other, complete the conundrum, receive the reward, and find a way to the next area. This formula does wear quite thin after a while as it feels like a lot of back and forth; to make matters worse, both girls seem to move at a snail's pace.

Of course, this back and forth isn’t without consequence either, as both girls have a villain in their respective areas who they must avoid or have their health depleted; in Vivian’s case this is her lung capacity (because of course she’s asthmatic), and for Amy this is an increase to her stress levels.

Fear the Spotlight really plays on atmospheric horror rather than jump scares or anything too psychological, and it does this with great effect: creepy sounds in the distance, disturbing notes from classmates – everything adds up to a larger, more unsettling story which really plays on the mind of those who experience it.

The horror element is extremely well done throughout the game, and paves the way for an interesting story as you progress through the game, but things can verge on tedious as the gameplay style does feel very back and forth throughout. Fortunately, with each run lasting just a few hours, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and so comes recommended if you like this era of horror games.