‘Layers of Fear 2’ Contains a Half-Hour Long Homage to ‘Se7en’ and a Ton of Other Movie References

This article contains SPOILERS for all of Layers of Fear 2.

The dozens of air fresheners hanging from the ceiling were a dead giveaway.

If you’ve seen David Fincher’s classic crime thriller, Se7en, you may recognize the image, too: a forest of flat pine trees masking the stench of an emaciated body, wasting away in a twin bed. This is the victim that Kevin Spacey’s serial killer, John Doe, (who probably has a better reputation than Spacey himself, at this point) identified as Sloth and kept bedridden for a year, still alive, but decomposing. The moment when detectives Mills (Brad Pitt) and Somerset (Morgan Freeman) find this victim is one of the most memorable images in a movie defined by dark, indelible moments. And Bloober Team, the developers behind last month’s Layers of Fear 2, included a picture-perfect recreation in their horror game.

In fact, Layers of Fear 2 contains homages to each of the seven murders in the movie.

Here’s Lust:

Pride:

Gluttony:

Greed:

Of course, in Se7en, envy and wrath are fulfilled in less obvious ways. Doe tells Mills that he is envy; that he is jealous of Mills’ “normal life.” Envy doesn’t have an obvious analogue in Layers of Fear 2, but it could be represented in a few different ways. James and Lily, the children whose memories the player explores during their time on the ghost ship— who stowaway aboard the ship to escape an abusive father— could similarly, be envious of people with “normal lives.” It’s implied that Lily and James’ mother died in childbirth while she was in labor with James, which seems to fuel their father’s anger and alcoholism. Lily, throughout, is shown to be strong and imaginative, a protector figure in James’ life. James could be envious of Lily for either of these things: that she knew their mother, that she isn’t the primary target of their father’s ire or because she’s the strong leader, while James follows.

Wrath, however, follows the film, with the player finding Lily’s head in a cardboard box. Way to commit to the bit.

And, if you hadn’t caught on yet, at this point an achievement pops up in the corner: “Se7en Seas.”

It’s the most bizarrely extensive homage to a film that I’ve ever seen in a professionally developed video game. This is the kind of thing I would expect to see as a fan game in Dreams, not in a hotly anticipated horror sequel.

But, it’s far from the only reference to film in Layers of Fear 2. Given the game’s setup — you are an actor who has agreed to conquer their deep-seated and mysterious fear of the sea to accept an auteur director’s invitation to star in his latest flick, which is being filmed on an ocean liner — it’s fitting that Layers of Fear 2 is packed with allusions to classic films, both real and imagined. Below, we’ve compiled every movie reference we noticed in Layers of Fears 2 across three playthroughs.

More Fincher

That extended homage to Se7en isn’t even the only reference to David Fincher’s body of work — though you’ll need to play the game a second time to see the other. At the end of the second chapter, during New Game +, you’ll enter a room with large windows looking out on a cityscape. In the center of the room, there’s a detonator. To advance, you’ll need to push the plunger, leveling all the skyscrapers in view. This is a pretty clear allusion to Fight Club, and again, an achievement (“We Don’t Talk About It”) serves as a dark punchline. As far as I can tell, this is the only scene that the New Game + adds to the game.

Shooting the Moon

While Fincher’s work hails from the recent (but definitely not as recent as it feels) past, Layers of Fear 2’s references date back nearly all the way to the beginning of film. While playing the lengthy flashback section in Act 3, the player constructs a toy rocket ship and then pilots it through space, dodging asteroids as you go (which could also read as an homage to early video games). The journey concludes with a different rocket ship crashing into the moon’s eye, a striking black-and-white image that recalls the famous poster for Georges Méliès 1902 film, A Trip to the Moon.

Norman Boats

At one point, you’ll walk into a room with a smaller room, formed with red shower curtains at the center. To progress, you need to pull all four away. Each time you do, a high-pitched note will sound, as a shadow on the curtain inches toward an unsuspecting figure ahead of it. When you pull the fourth and final curtain, those high-pitched notes become the famous shrieking crescendo from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The shadow repeatedly stabs the other shadow in the back and a mannequin tumbles out of the curtains.

Thievin’ King

A lot of these allusions are pretty on-the-nose, but this one may be the most brazen.  As you walk down a hallway carpeted with the orange and black hexagon pattern from The Shining’s Overlook Hotel, a ghostly child on a toy trike rides past you. When you turn the corner, ghostly twins are staring you down from the end of the hall. Ready Player One’s tribute was less obvious.

Lore of The Ring

Layers of Fear 2 contains visual references to at least one of The Ring movies. A character crawls down a well, which could be an allusion to the girl from The Ring 2 crawling up a well. The reference to the first Ring film is more direct. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of both versions of the famously contorted crawl:

The Wizard of “Ah, I Get It!”

Film posters are the main collectible item in the game, with artwork for film versions of Shakespeare’s plays and fake movies hidden all over the ship. The most recognizable reference is a poster that depicts a man in a top hat and tails leading a woman in a blue dress down a yellow road toward a castle in a clear homage to The Wizard of Oz. The fake film is called “A Wondrous Voyage.”

“This land is such a wonder. But how will I ever get home?” the woman says, via voiceover.

“Home?” the man responds. “Now, why’d you wanna go to such an awful place?”

Large Adult Iron Son

During the voyage to the moon, a giant with glowing eyes appears in the stars. We couldn’t help thinking he looked more than a little like this other giant with glowing eyes.

Horror-y Potter

This may just be a coincidence but… did you notice that the two main characters, Lily and James, share their names with Harry Potter’s parents? And they’re also British children escaping miserable homelives but getting wrapped up in a much more dangerous situation in the process? Nah, probably just a coincidence.

Those are all the references we caught. However, this game is almost certainly hiding more Easter eggs we haven’t been able to find yet. If you noticed a reference that we omitted, let us know in the comments below!