The potential for anyone to make video games, movies, artwork, and so much more is nearly limitless in Media Molecule's sandbox tool Dreams on the PlayStation 4. One player garnered attention from Tommy Wiseau for a recreation of an infamous scene in The Room, but as a pair of players who go by Quorra__ISO and dave138 have shown with their full-scale recreation of the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, the platform has the potential to be so much more.
This Dreams recreation was first uploaded in May 2019 and last updated on July 26, 2019, featuring the Gold Room, the Maze, the Lounge and Second Floor, as well as Room 237 from what Quorra__ISO describes as "my all-time favorite horror film." On Tuesday it was picked up by IGN, which uploaded a walking tour video through every completed part of the hotel on YouTube accompanied by the film's haunting score.
The amount of detail packed into the creation is frankly dizzying, particularly to fans of Kubrick's 1980 classic. The typewriter in the hotel lobby has sheets of paper covered with Jack Nicholson's "all work and no play" line, and Lorraine Massey appears in the bathtub when players look in the mirror in Room 237, plus so much more. The prospect of being able to walk through the Overlook Hotel in a video game is somewhat reminiscent of the scene from Steven Spielberg's 2018 adaptation of Ready Player One.
Despite Stephen King not being a huge fan of Kubrick's take on his book, The Shining is arguably one of the most famous adaptations — if not horror movies — ever made. A film called Doctor Sleep was recently released based on King's 2013 follow-up novel to The Shining, and HBO is currently working on a Shining spin-off series called Overlook with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions.
Fan-made takes on The Shining in video games are not just limited to Dreams. Animal Crossing: New Horizons players have also gained attention for recreating scenes from horror movies like The Shining and Midsommar in what is otherwise an incredibly kid-friendly title.
Despite Dreams being such a potent creative tool, not every company is happy with how open it is. Nintendo has cracked down on fan-made Mario games, for example. That said, it makes it all the sweeter to discover something like Quorra__ISO and dave138's Overlook Hotel recreation hidden away in the title's sea of uploaded projects.
Dreams is available now for PS4.
Source: Overlook Hotel (WIP) - Dreams