Most Surreal Games Inspired by David Lynch, Ranked

There is no doubt that David Lynch has had a profound impact on video games. In the wake of his death in January 2025, game developers were among the many who paid homage to him and cited him as inspiration for their work.

Less surreal games he has influenced infamously include his improbable impact on the Legend of Zelda series. But where the inspiration of Lynch truly shines is in the more “Lynchian” games: games that are surreal, disorienting, and at times uncomfortable. Surreal games are those that have a dream-like quality, blurring fantasy and reality. Here are some of the best video games that are inspired by the works of David Lynch.

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12 Deadly Premonition

"My Coffee Warned Me About It"

Deadly Premonition is a peculiar game that was originally even more like Twin Peaks, before community feedback caused the developers to change things a bit. It features Francis York Morgan, a distorted facsimile of Dale Cooper. Francis is hunting a serial killer known as the Raincoat Killer in the sleepy town of Greenvale.

It all hinges around some mysterious red seeds and the detective's personal trauma. The soundtrack is strange and wonderful, the dialogue is slow and awkward, not to mention the driving. But it has some janky charm for those that have the patience and sense of humor for a game that has become a cult classic.

11 Virginia

Silent Cinematic Brilliance

Virginia is an eerie yet beautiful first-person narrative-driven game that focuses on the investigation of a child's disappearance. As with many Twin Peaks inspired games, it foregrounds the emotional journey and toll on FBI agents confronting the hidden depths of the human psyche.

The silence and stillness in Lynch’s work are some of his most powerful and uncomfortable moments. Virginia has this in spades. Everything is told through actions, interactions, brilliant sound design, and beautifully executed environmental storytelling.

10 Thimbleweed Park

"The Signals are Strong Tonight"

At first glance, Thimbleweed Park is simply a loving homage to 90s point-and-click mystery games. But it becomes increasingly apparent that the fourth-wall-breaking moments are more than self-aware meta humor. At its core, it is a surreal game about games wrapped in a procedural murder mystery.

It follows two agents investigating a murder, and shifts perspectives to focus on the experiences of other people in the quiet little town of Thimbleweed Park. There are obvious references made to Twin Peaks, and a similar pastiche quality to Lynch’s work.

9 Cube Escape Theatre

"My Memories Bring Me Back To The Lake"

• Developer: Rusty Lake
• Platforms: PC, iOS and Android
• Release Date: 2016
• Website

The developers of the Rusty Lake Cube Escape series of horror puzzle games have not only been inspired by Twin Peaks and the works of David Lynch, but the games have prominent references and Easter eggs throughout. The Rusty Lake games are short, surreal, and interconnected escape room-style puzzle games.

Theatre shows its Lynchian influence in the most overt manner. The names are inspired by Twin Peaks with a murder victim named Laura, a man named Bob haunted by her death alone at a bar, and Dale Vandermeer, the detective investigating her death.

8 Cube Escape: Paradox

"Have I Been Here Before?"

• Developer: Rusty Lake
• Platforms: PC, iOS and Android
• Release date: 2018
• Website

Horror mobile games' most troubled Dale Cooper clone, Dale Vandermeer, is back. This time, players get insight into his psyche and his intense guilt. It shows a splitting and duality that was a theme in Lynch’s work. Paradox is split into two separate puzzle rooms that are similar but strangely different.

The puzzles are the same point-and-click fare that Rusty Lake specializes in, and while their art style has become more polished, it still retains that grim uncanniness of earlier games. Like Twin Peaks, the game is inextricably tied to the lake and the death of Laura.

7 Who’s Lila?

“It’s Difficult For Me To Express Emotions”

Who’s Lila? Is a self-described Lynchian “reverse-detective adventure” with supernatural twists that change a player’s perception of the protagonist at multiple points during the game. The key mechanic that sets Who’s Lila? Apart is the facial manipulation that is necessary for players to navigate social encounters.

There is certainly a Twin Peaks- style narrative to the game. But its examination of the inability of those that exist on the fringes of the human experience to imitate appropriate emotions is reminiscent of films like Mulholland Drive and Eraserhead. Players never quite get the answers to their questions, and really, that's the most Lynchian thing of all.

6 Control

"It Feels Sane, Or Just The Right Kind Of Insane"

The Remedy “connected universe” is littered with Lynchian elements, from overt allusions to Twin Peaks, to the studio’s preoccupation with surrealist and esoteric narratives. The idea that there are different planes of existence and layers of reality that cannot always be perceived is a huge part of what makes Control such a Lynchian experience.

In practice, Control has a lot in common with Fire Walk With Me and The Return, which opens the door to the strangeness beyond Twin Peaks. Both Lynch and Remedy take the procedural elements of agencies like the FBI and apply them to a transdimensional supernatural context.

5 Alan Wake

"A Little Heavy On The Metaphors Maybe"

Sam Lake has made it clear that Lynch’s Twin Peaks heavily inspired Alan Wake. Even if he hadn’t acknowledged it, the Lynchian roots of the game are obvious. From the moment the player steps off the ferry and into Bright Falls, it is clear that the town is modeled on Twin Peaks. The isolated Washington logging town, the diner, and even the double-barreled name evoke the 1990s television series.

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Alan is no Dale Cooper, but he is the same magnet for darkness and the supernatural as the cheery and earnest FBI agent. Both protagonists experience a splitting of identity, with doppelgängers being introduced. And Remedy’s Dark Place and Lynch’s Black Lodge have a lot in common.

4 Alan Wake 2

"It's Not A Loop, It's A Spiral"

If the original Alan Wake is Twin Peaks series one and two, then Alan Wake 2 is Fire Walk with Me and Twin Peaks: The Return. They are such different experiences. Remedy’s original video game and the 1990s Twin Peaks series are surreal noir heading towards the transcendental supernatural.

But their long-awaited sequels are fully immersed in the surrealist supernatural, in which what is real and what is not are barely distinguishable. Audiences get to view the same faces and locations, but through a new lens that is sometimes bleaker and sometimes more ethereal. Alan Wake 2 is Remedy at their genre-breaking finest, and the debt the series owes to Lynch is evident throughout.

3 Silent Hill 2

"You forgot that videotape we made. I wonder if it's still there."

Games inspired by Twin Peaks are common, but those directly inspired by Lynch’s nightmarish psychosexual time loop film Lost Highway are less so. Masahiro Ito has explicitly stated that Silent Hill 2 was inspired by Lynch’s film Lost Highway, which is about spousal murder and the psychological effects of guilt.

Both James and Frank dissociate from themselves in order to live with the horrible reality of their lives, and they both imagine monstrous awful things. The similarities between Silent Hill 2 and Lost Highway shine through in the game's remake, as James' more expressive face and voice convey more nuanced and conflicted emotional responses.