You Should Play Veinless Property

The jarring, blood red, and cel-shaded environments of Veinless Property is a potent sign of the cosmic horrors to come. Inspired by the absurd, macabre horror of manga artist Junji Ito, Veinless Property has a deceptively domestic premise: you’re all alone at home, and you just have to turn out the lights before settling back to the paltry comforts of your bed and under your sheets–you know, exactly where nothing can get at you.

What’s most horrifying about Ito’s brand of spook and body horror isn’t just the excruciatingly graphic manner in which his terrors are being illustrated, but it’s that these fears are often so distressingly familiar to us. One of Ito’s most ominous stories is the suggestion that a stranger has been living inside your favourite armchair all along, or the mysterious sensation of being drawn towards entering a narrow fissure that’s carved to the exact contours of your body–a hole that’s made just for us.

Likewise, Veinless Property is about spending the night alone in a big, empty house. There’s very little solace to be found in this place, with the piercing intensity of your crimson surroundings serving as a harsh, even disconcerting reminder of your immediate danger, whether imagined or not. Rather than the bustle of city life outside your home, you’ll only see a bloody moon, set within the unsettling, isolating backdrop of sparse forests and mountainous terrains–a scene that emphasizes the stark solitude and helplessness of your circumstances.

And then you hear the impatient rapping on your door, and see the shattered glass of your windows, the ghastly moonlight streaming into your house. Just another night alone, obviously.  

You can download Veinless Property for free on itch.io.