Bad Parenting

Released by Vietnamese developer 2OO2 Studio, Bad Parenting: Mr. Red Face made its debut on August 16, 2024. It quickly caught the attention of horror game enthusiasts for its disconcerting visual and thematic content, which was streamed extensively across various platforms. This engagement highlighted the game’s fresh take on narrative and gameplay, setting it apart in the horror genre.

Unfolding Horror

The core of the game’s narrative revolves around the spectral figure known as Mr. Red Face. This figure represents the darkest moments of fatherhood and serves as a grim cautionary tale. The narrative begins with a father named Bruce, overwhelmed by his perceived failures, which tragically leads to his son Ron’s death. This catalytic event propels Ron into a ghostly existence where he must navigate his trauma and seek some form of closure.

A Night of Revelations

The gameplay begins seemingly innocently with a mother forgetting her son’s birthday. To compensate, she tells her son a bedtime story about Mr. Red Face, a shadowy entity that visits children at night, supposedly leaving toys behind. This attempt to soothe her son turns eerie as the night progresses. Disturbed by strange sounds, the son encounters a mysterious figure and discovers a new, peculiar doll beside his bed the following morning. The doll, which bears a disturbing resemblance to him but with a grotesquely altered head, sets the stage for the chilling events that unfold.

The Quest for Truth

As the narrative progresses, the boy interacts with the unsettling doll, which leads him to uncover disturbing truths about his missing father, with implications that Mr. Red Face might be involved. Driven by the need to uncover the full story, the boy discovers a hidden portal in his wardrobe that leads to a spectral realm—a limbo for ‘bad’ parents. Here, he meets other children with similar familial struggles and a cat that acts as a bureaucratic overseer of this realm. Despite the bleak environment, the boy’s determination to find and possibly reconcile with his father pushes him deeper into this bizarre world.