There’s a lot of unsettling things to be found in Remedy’s sci-fi thriller game: Control. The main enemy is a “resonance-based” life form that takes over minds. There’s also an otherworldly mold that invariably turns people into its zombified thralls. Oh, and let’s not forget the living building governed by extra-dimensional creatures who may or may not have a vested interest in the survival of their human allies.

That’s three terrifyingly powerful forces at play in the same place, all which are beyond human understanding. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for a bit of levity in Control though, and that’s where haunted objects like The Fridge come in.

According to its file The Fridge is an appliance with a mind of its own, and that mind causes it to act out in unpredictable ways. It may or may not have been the cause of a building collapse in the 1970’s, and it’s also been known (but never actually observed) to harm people who don’t pay it proper attention. The Fridge can be calmed (or perhaps it’s better to say “appeased”) by having someone constantly sitting and staring at it. This is exactly what the The Bureau of Control does, assigning agents to literally sit and stare at the thing in shifts. It would be a pretty easy job, but you absolutely cannot look away from it for any length of time. If you do, the result can be…unpleasant to say the least.

As they make their way through Control, players have the chance to not only encounter The Fridge but also to cleanse it if they want. Cleansing it isn’t easy though, because it turns out that there’s A LOT more to this refrigerator than anyone thought. For some reason, the object is connected to yet another extra-dimensional being known only as “The Former,” and it is NOT interested in leaving. Success means more power for players to play around with, but this encounter is the real prize, I think.

I don’t know about you, but I just love the idea of a haunted refrigerator that not only likes attention, but actually demands it. Imagine actually having to keep an eye on your fridge lest it start misbehaving and doing things like shuffling around its contents or turning off at inopportune times. I suppose “The Former” is indeed a legitimately scary thing, but I think that’s all undone by the decidedly goofy wrapper it comes in. There are plenty of other encounters with goofy objects in Control, but this one stands out as one its most goofy/scary.

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Have you played Control? Did any of the objects or missions stand out to you? What about in other games? At any rate, Spooptober marches on this week, so stay tuned!

Lede image by Duck of Indeed