‘Severance meets Stranger Things’ - brilliant analogue call centre horror Home Safety Hotline is being turned into a movie
Home Safety Hotline, an indie horror game from Night Signal Entertainment released in early 2024, is being adapted into a feature film. Director Michael Matthews, known for Love and Monsters, is helming the project.
The game places players in a 1990s call centre setting where they answer calls from members of the public requesting help with home-related issues. Rather than traditional gameplay mechanics, interaction occurs through a Windows 95-inspired desktop interface. The experience begins as routine customer service but gradually becomes increasingly strange and unsettling.
The game blends the mundane reality of office work with creeping supernatural horror, drawing comparisons to a hybrid of Severance and Stranger Things. This unique aesthetic—pairing nostalgic computing visuals with atmospheric dread—creates compelling material for screen adaptation. The game’s distinctive approach to horror through an analogue interface and period-specific setting offers a fresh angle for filmmakers.
Michael Matthews brings relevant experience from Love and Monsters, which similarly demonstrated skill in blending disparate tones and genre elements. His sensibility appears well-suited to translating the game’s atmospheric horror and distinctive workplace setting to film.