Dark Sesame Street Done Right: My Friendly Neighborhood

Erin tells us not to take a wrong turn

- Erin McAllister

Last month I previewed the demo for an upcoming indie horror game from developer John Syzmanski (with the help of many others involved in the project). The title was My Friendly Neighborhood and I absolutely fell in love with it. I'm always a tad trepidatious when it comes to dipping my toes into a horror experience, but after a few tense minutes of teasing around every corner and allowing myself to wallow in the fear of what these strange puppets might do to me, I found myself having loads of fun. In that preview, I favorably compared My Friendly Neighborhood to Resident Evil, a survival horror series that also surprised me with how deeply it has entrenched itself into my heart. However, there's another famous franchise that this new indie darling draws from on an even greater level: Sesame Street. My Friendly Neighborhood screenshot If Wet Dont Walk

Now, the base concept for My Friendly Neighborhood - exploring a dilapidated television studio and fending off violent puppets in order to end a broadcasted remake of an old, beloved puppet show that has turned unsettling - might seem like it could describe more puppet shows than just Sesame Street, including The Muppet Show. Frankly, while I could go into some sort of debate over how Sesame Street is a more apt comparison, such a discussion would miss the point of My Friendly Neighborhood being influenced by these sorts of shows. Sure, the in-universe show of the same name, My Friendly Neighborhood, is pretty clearly presented as more of an edutainment-style production, thereby drawing more from Sesame Street in concept than the sketch-comedy focused Muppet Show, which itself had been intended as a somewhat more adult usage of Jim Henson's Muppets. But that doesn't somehow mean that The Muppet Show had no influence on this project, nor does my opinion on the subject merit any sort of factual basis. This is my interpretation of My Friendly Neighborhood, plain and simple.