Introducing What We Play In The Shadows Ep. 1: Making Pokemon Scary

The Dead Meat Podcast launched a new horror gaming spin-off called What We Play in the Shadows, and its first episode features hosts Zorin Gavoych and Gina DeVivo joined by Chelsea Rebecca for a thought experiment: take a non-horror video game and pitch a horror version of it. They start with Pokémon, and the conversation quickly reveals that the franchise is already full of nightmare fuel hiding in plain sight.

The Horror That Was Always There

The group begins by cataloging the genuinely disturbing lore that exists in official Pokémon canon, often buried in Pokédex entries that few players read. Mimikyu, a Pokémon that wears a Pikachu costume, is described as having a true form so terrifying that anyone who sees it dies from shock. Cubone wears the skull of its dead mother. Drifloon looks like a balloon but is actually filled with the screams of the souls it has consumed, and it specifically targets children. Gengar, according to some lore, was once human and now seeks a companion because it misses being one. Even Charmander, the beloved fire-type starter, will die if the flame on its tail goes out — making it a fragile pet that cannot survive a rainstorm or a strong wind. The hosts point out that the very premise of Pokémon — capturing wild creatures, forcing them into tiny balls, and making them fight each other — is already ethically questionable. The horror is bake