If you’re a fan of the bloody, the grotesque, and the scary, then there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Dead Meat. The YouTube horror channel is best known as the home for the Kill Count series. Hosted by James A. Janisse, the series has tallied up the kills in all our favorite horror movies since 2017.
Nearly a decade later, Dead Meat is expanding with the launch of Dead Meat Games — a gaming-specific channel dedicated to the horror genre, from video games to tabletop.
With the channel comes a brand-new show: Kill Count Games, hosted by Dead Meat’s channel co-writer Zoran Gvojic. Much like its movie counterpart, Gvojic will provide a comedic recap of horror-game kills, ranging from mainstream titles like Resident Evil to indie darlings like Mouthwashing.
Janisse and Gvojic have previously featured video game adaptations of Kill Count on Dead Meat’s main channel during what the two described to Polygon as the “weird era” of 2023, where Hollywood strikes restricted what they could and couldn’t cover. The two covered major horror titles such as Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn and Konami’s Silent Hill. Those forays into gaming were a hit (the Until Dawn Kill Count episode has over a million streams), and the launch of Dead Meat Games marks a dedicated space for video games within Dead Meat’s platform.
Beyond chasing YouTube views, Gvojic believes that interactive media like video games can challenge viewers in ways that film and TV can’t.
“Horror movies don’t scare me as much anymore, but games still get me,” he tells Polygon.
Expanding into video games also makes sense when you consider the medium’s impact on culture in general. With Hollywood racing to churn out as many adaptations as possible, focusing on the games themselves just makes sense for Dead Meat.
“It’s undeniable that video games are now the biggest media format in general over TV, over movies, over books, over anything else. And I think there’s such an audience there,” Janisse says. “I think it would be foolish not to tap into that audience, especially with how many good horror games are being made.”
Adapting Kill Count to cover video games came with its own challenges. Unlike film and TV, video games can vary in how kills work and how many occur throughout the course of a story. In choice-based horror games like The Quarry, player decisions affect who survives. To counter this, Gvojic and Janisse set up a new approach: a canon playthrough. The two of them each play the game and then compare the results to determine the most and fewest kills a player could have. That includes dead bodies in the background, which is as tedious and nitpicky as it sounds. (Gvojic only adds them to the kill tally if they have heads. Severed body parts do not count.)
Kill Count Games also adapts the original series’ trophy and awards system. The Golden Chainsaw spotlights the coolest kill, whereas the Dull Machete is awarded for the lamest kill. Focused on video games, Gvojic added his own awards, such as the Royal Reload, designed to showcase particularly memorable player deaths. However, Gvojic didn’t stop there. He also created awards tailored to each episode and to specific horror game genres. The Butchered Butterfly is designed for branching-path games, where the best possible death in the game’s multiverse gets highlighted.
With Dead Meat Games set to launch on Friday, May 15, Gvojic and Janisse revealed to Polygon what the first episode of Kill Count Games will cover.
“The first is Fear of the Spotlight, a wonderful little indie game that got purchased by Blumhouse Games,” Gvojic says. “It’s a great gateway horror game, a tale of two teens kind of falling in love in a spooky situation in high school. I’m so excited to have that as the premiere episode of season three of Kill Count Games.”
While the channel is starting small, Gvojic confirms that there will be continued coverage of bigger games, such as Resident Evil.
However, Kill Count Games isn’t the only show that will make up Dead Meat Games. There’s also What We Play In The Shadows, a horror games-focused podcast dedicated to reviews, event recaps, video game movie comparisons, and more, hosted by Gvojic and tabletop RPG legend Gina DeVivo. Last but not least is DMG Report, a live-streamed news show that will tackle game announcements, recent releases, and developments in the games industry. DMG Report will be hosted by Gvojic and Ben Bellevue, who also works as a producer on all three shows.
But ultimately, Gvojic’s goal with Dead Meat Games is simple: “I want this to be a place for all forms of horror gaming to be able to be celebrated in whatever form they are.”
Dead Meat Games will launch on YouTube at 9 am EST on May 15th.
