Image: Wych Elm & Team17

As mentioned in our Hellraiser review earlier today, it's all too easy for a survival horror game to wear its inspirations on its sleeve, instead of having them engraved on its heart. Judging by the demo, Silver Pines–out today, and the debut title from new indie outfit Wych Elm–deftly evades that trap. Featuring gorgeous rotoscoped sprites and a side-scrolling world that looks like it's straight out of the pages of a grimy indie comic, it's undeniably inspired by Silent Hill and Twin Peaks, but subsumes those ideas into its own, vivid and unsettling identity.

It's a real 'two cakes' situation - two exciting horror games landing on the same day - and I'm very much hoping to dig into this one over the weekend. The setup is very Lynch - a grimy private eye, Red Walker, wanders into a rainy, foggy town in search of a missing musician, Eddie (Blue?) Velvet. But it doesn't take long before reality starts to fray and shadowy monsters start to get in the way. They feel inspired by Silent Hill, writhing and sometimes limbless, and need stomping on to make sure that they stay down, but have their own shambling energy and an aesthetic of their own that perfectly fits the art style.

While Walker seems to be slipping in and out of reality, the town keeps on trucking, and the locals seem faintly, creepily aware of the strange things going on, but are unperturbed by it. The demo culminated in a very Lynch-inspired sequence where Red gets to take a load off, listen to a song at a local bar, and then get wrenched back into the nightmare with a boss fight that requires precise timing, as you've got to reload your revolver one bullet at a time through a QTE prompt, all while being menaced by something in the shadows.

Interestingly, the game also bills itself as a metroidvania, promising more exploration and interconnectedness than the average survival horror game. Although considering how most Silent Hill games play out, I think that's more par for the course than anything in the genre. Either way, initial reviews for Silver Pines have been rolling in for a while, and they are glowingly positive, and doing a fair few points better than its big pin-headed rival today. Hardly a surprise, given how good the demo was, but it only has me more excited to dive into the full game. If nothing else, you should give it a shot yourself.

Silver Pines is out now for £22/$25, with a 10% launch discount running until October 22nd. But you'll probably want to try the demo first, which will take most folks at least an hour.