Psychological thriller Martha Is Dead “combines superstition, folklore, and deep psychological distress”

New trailer shows off a spooky fairytale, too.

Town of Light developer LKA has dropped a new video teaser for its upcoming psychological thriller, Martha Is Dead.

The trailer doesn’t give away much, but it does touch upon the Tale of the White Lady, “the spirit of a murdered, tortured soul whose one goal is to seek a moment’s relief by dragging others into the water to suffer the same fate”.

The “savage story” told in the video is reportedly based upon a real-life Italian legend, which is purportedly passed down through from generation to generation much as it’s done in this trailer, with the young Giulia badgering her grandmother to tell her the spooky story of “a drowned maiden, murdered in a fit of jealousy by her lover who now stalks the shores of the lake where she suffered in her final moments”.

“We’re excited to be able to reveal more and more of Martha is Dead as we head towards launch, with this latest trailer helping to set the tone for what’s to come,” said Luca Dalco, LKA founder and director of Martha Is Dead. “The soundtrack is also incredibly important when it comes to supporting play with the right atmosphere, and we can’t wait for gamers to engage all of their senses with play.”

Credit: LKA

Interestingly, a sentence at the end of the press release teases that the game “combines real-world locations, working in links to historical events, superstition, folklore, and deep psychological distress”. Yikes.

As yet, there’s still no firm release date, but we’ll let you know just as soon as it’s confirmed.

As Matt summarised last year, LKA’s previous title, The Town of Light, took some extremely difficult, sometimes harrowing subject matter and presented it in an engaging, respectful way. “It neither comes across as trying to shock, nor ever pulls back from unpleasant or simply uncomfortable scenes,” Richard Cobbett wrote in his Eurogamer Recommended review, “[it’s] simply a slice of history that welcomes you into its halls to share your empathy, without locking the doors behind you”.