Why The Devil in Me is The Dark Pictures' season finale

Supermassive</strong> is preparing the release of the fourth installment of its horror anthology The Dark Pictures. The Devil in Me will also be a title somewhat different from the previous ones, since in addition to more polished graphics (like those that already differentiated House of Ashes from Man of Medan or Little Hope), it has introduced a number of features that enrich the gaming experience, such as inventory and new character movement options, which we already talked about during our first impressions at Gamescom 2022 by directly testing the game.

Game Director Tom Heaton was kind enough to grant us an interview at the Cologne event, and in it he delved into the inspiration and real events on which the title, which will be released on November 15, is based. You can watch it below.

Specifically, he gave us details about the historical character on which the story is based. H.H. Holmes, considered the first serial killer in North America.

"H. H. Holmes, was a serial killer who was active in Chicago in the 1890s. There was a big exhibition in Chicago in that decade, the World's Fair. People from all over the country travelled there to attend the fair and Holmes built a hotel to accommodate the guests, and murdered them there. He was tried, confessed to as many as 27 cases of murder and was hanged. (...) For us it was great source material. Our game is set in the present day, it's about a modern-day murderer who is inspired by Holmes and also has access to modern-day technology to commit crimes, which, if you think about it, is terrifying. So it fit very well with what we wanted to tell. I wanted to do something within the serial killer slasher genre, so this was good material."

We also talked about the game's enigmatic title, and were surprised to learn that it is, in fact, a real quote from Holmes himself.

"Holmes knew it was all over. He knew they were going to hang him. So he began to exaggerate his legend. He gave a speech during the trial from the stand in which he told the judge 'I have the Devil in me, and I could no more help murdering people than the poet can help reciting'. That's where we get the title from. Holmes requested that when he was buried they completely cover his body with cement because he was worried that the devil would escape from his body and kill again."

The Devil in Me marks the end of what they've dubbed at the studio as the first season of The Dark Pictures, and we'll have to wait a while to find out where the series is headed after this conclusion. For the time being, the studio has already embarked on a new project following the release of The Quarry that promises to be of similar length.