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# When the pixels cut away, Tenebris Somnia goes live-action
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/when-the-pixels-cut-away-tenebris-somnia-goes-live-action/
- Published: 2026-08-28T23:58:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T23:58:13.000Z
- Description: Andrés Borghi—the VFX artist behind When Evil Lurks—and Saibot Studios shot the film sequences with real actors and practical effects; New Blood publishes October 16.
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: Tenebris Somnia, Saibot Studios, Andrés Borghi, Airdorf, New Blood Interactive, fmv, survival horror, argentina, pixel art

*Tenebris Somnia* is a survival horror adventure in the 8- and 16-bit idiom—*Silent Hill* and *Resident Evil* pacing flattened into retro 2D—until it reaches a key moment and cuts to live action: real actors, practical effects, shot by a professional film crew in Argentina. The people involved explain the confidence. It's directed by Andrés Borghi, the visual effects artist behind *When Evil Lurks,* and developed with Saibot Studios of Buenos Aires. You play Julia, a young Argentine woman trapped in a nightmare of monsters, puzzles, and dwindling consumables.

The date is now firm: October 16, on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2121510/Tenebris%5FSomnia/?ref=killscreen.com), PlayStation 4 and 5, Switch and Switch 2, and Xbox Series, published by New Blood Interactive. The project's producer is Airdorf, creator of the lo-fi horror landmark *FAITH*, who in [the announcement reel](https://www.instagram.com/p/Dbqbg-1u43D/?ref=killscreen.com) calls the approach "FMV-elevated" and the game "HAND-CRAFTED"—capitals theirs. The claim holds up on inspection: the production leans on practical effects throughout, and the Steam page carries no AI-generated-content disclosure.

What I like here is the rehabilitation project. FMV spent decades as games' most ridiculed format, the acronym itself shorthand for *Night Trap* camp, and its revivals have mostly traded on that irony. *Tenebris Somnia* plays it straight instead: film as the privileged register. We were tracking this instinct back when [an FMV game shot inside a real decommissioned nuclear bunker](https://www.killscreen.com/upcoming-fmv-game-lets-explore-real-decommissioned-nuclear-bunker/); a decade on, the format's best argument is again that the camera can go where the sprite cannot.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/08/tenebris-s2.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/08/tenebris-s3.jpg)

**Tenebris Somnia*. Screenshots: Saibot Studios / New Blood Interactive

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