“The Supper” by Octavi Navarro, Lauren Davidson & Joel Murray.
“Ms. Appleton wakes up in her tavern’s kitchen. The [voice] inside her head is still there. It [will not] leave her alone. It commands her to serve a very special meal to some distinguished customers.”
To combine horror media with the act of cooking is an old tradition, which happens for some good reasons. For instance, food-related killings can come in various facets, like poisoning meals, using human flesh as ingredients, cooking the victims while they are alive or to even feed the nearly deceased their own organs; just think of “Hannibal”, “Delicatessen” or “Soylent Green”. The thoughts of consuming another human disgusts us and to die by an everyday activity like eating is frightening us. Such acts strike us as pure evil, as they are mostly happening for the satisfaction of sexual lust, pure appetite for human flesh or out of greed.
While the point and click adventure called “The Supper” combines food and horror as well, it goes into a whole other direction. Here, a little old lady named Ms. Appleton with stilts instead of legs has to murder her three customers with special meals, because the voice in her head tells her so. The game is quite short and can be finished within fifteen minutes, but even in this short timeframe you have to wonder about the storyline and its twists. You might ask yourself if the voice is just a hallucination of Ms. Appleton. Or you will think about her lost legs and if they are possibly the main ingredient of the special sauce. Questions like “Why does the voice wants to see the three customers, a bunch of pirate bandits, dead?” and “Maybe the elder cook just wants their treasure chest?” will come up.
You will get all your answers, as the game will reveal them in a surprising way. Take the stunning pixel art as an appetizer, while you enjoy the spicy taste of the entrée – the brutal deaths -, garnished with some crispy puzzles. The course will be finished with a bittersweet ending as a dessert. Et voilà! “The Supper” is served. [PLAY]
