Horror indie game hit Dredge is getting a surprise film adaptation

Black Salt Games and Story Kitchen announced their intention to make a movie based on the 2023 horror indie game hit Dredge.

Story Kitchen is one of the media production companies behind the recent push for film and TV adaptations of video games. The Sonic the Hedgehog movies and upcoming Netflix show Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft are its biggest successes in actually getting these adaptations made, but it also has multimedia projects in the works based on games like Streets of Rage, Toejam & Earl, It Takes Two, and Disco Elysium. It’s adding a horror movie based on Dredge to that list because Story Kitchen thinks the game has “a captivatingly eerie and profoundly rich story that had us completely hooked from the very beginning.”

If you’re unfamiliar with Dredge, it was one of 2023’s surprise indie hits, having sold over 1 million copies within its first year of release. The core gameplay loop of Dredge is that of a simple fishing and boating game, as players go out, catch fish, sell them for money, and use that money to upgrade their boats. The game’s Lovecraftian undercurrent doesn’t take long to expose itself, though; before long, you’ll be catching weird fish and seeing horrific things out at sea if you stay away from shore for too long. It’s a memorable experience and one of Digital Trends’ favorite indie games of last year.

This project does not appear to be in active production at any major studios, but Story Kitchen is hoping the following logline catches their attention: “Think The Sixth Sense on the water. A grounded atmospheric cosmic horror blend of HP Lovecraft and Ernest Hemingway.”