Over the past year, I’ve been taking a deep dive into the filmography of the late, great David Lynch. Getting to experience his work for the first time with a friend has been truly special. Mulholland Drive, in particular, so profoundly moved me, and I was grateful to get to talk about that for a bit in the Criterion Mobile Closest at TIFF last year.
Clearly, I’ve been riding a Lynch high, and one just-announced indie game, The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham, is a particularly promising take on the auteur’s signature surrealism. Developed by Northwest Arkansas-based Causeway Studios (The Haunting of Joni Evers), Lilith Cunningham is a dark supernatural mystery about a woman whose search for her missing estranged daughter pulls her into a larger web of mass vanishings. (The game is set in the same universe as The Haunting of Joni Evers, but it otherwise serves as a standalone experience.)
To conduct her investigation, Lilith must venture to the Alpine Movie Manor Hotel and Drive-In, which is actually based on a real attraction in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. During exploration, players will have to solve puzzles by editing FMVs that alter the fabric of reality. So far, it’s looking trippy and engrossing in the best way.
It’s also worth noting that the ever-prolific Canadian game developer Manda Farough (Strange Scaffold’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?!) is Causeway’s director of production who also serves as principal narrative designer and writer on Lilith Cunningham. TMNT and Truck-kun are awesome, so that makes me even more excited to check out Farough’s latest game.
The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham will launch on PC (Steam) sometime in 2027.
