Just like the monster in a horror movie, the Saw franchise refuses to die. To coincide with the release of the sixth film of the franchise on Halloween, Konami will release a Saw survival horror video game. A playable demo was available at E3, and I got to put my proverbial skull in the steel head trap.

Saw: The Video Game puts you in the shoes of Detective Tapp, Danny Glover's character from the original film, though the in-game character strangely bears little resemblance to Glover. At the beginning of the game, Tapp awakes to find himself tied to a chair in a dilapidated room, with his head trapped in the same steel device that was featured so prominently in the first movie. He receives a video message from the Jigsaw Killer, giving him the usual escape-or-die catch-22, and with that the game sets you off.

Anyone familiar with the Saw movies will undoubtedly recognize many elements of the game right away. The film hasn't been so much adapted into a video game as it has been copied and pasted. What makes the Saw films so effective as horror films was the ghastly cleverness of the traps, like having to perform surgery on yourself to find the key to stop the mechanism of death. Saw: The Video Game is content to offer more of the same, with some light puzzle-solving and Shenmue-esque dynamic cut-scenes peppered throughout. Those totally unfamiliar with the Saw franchise will likely get a few jolts, but anyone who has seen the films will likely not find anything new or compelling when Saw: The Video Game is released. But lest you think Konami has completely dropped the ball on the survival horror genre…

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a "re-imagining" of the original game of the serires, which will see release on the Wii. I admit I was skeptical about the possibility of a survival horror game on the Wii, a platform known much more for its family-friendly image, but Konami showed that it can take advantage of the Wii's unique features to create a truly chilling experience.

Players take control of Harry Mason, an everyman looking for his lost daughter in the eerie town of Silent Hill. The game's camera has been changed to an over-the-shoulder perspective instead of a clunky third-person perspective. Players use the Wii remote to aim Harry's flashlight and control movement along with the nunchuk's analogue stick.

OK, so the game controls fine. But is it scary? Oh my, yes. When I began playing I was merely strolling through the city listening to the creepy, atmospheric score, wondering if any monsters were going to pop out.

Silent Hill's best scares are always after the game lulls you into a false sense of security. In this case, just as I began to get bored and worried that it would be another wash like Saw, the familiar radio crackling, darkening sky and erupting hell began, and I was almost immediately shaking in my boots. It really says something that even in the short demo put up at E3, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories managed to prove that it could be just as scary as past Silent Hills, and on the Wii no less.

Once Silent Hill showed its dark side and the monsters arrived, I instinctively looked for the "aim gun" button – only to realize to my horror that there was none. Combat is a non-element in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Instead, all you can do is run and shake off the blank-bodied, mannequin-like monsters if they grab hold of you. Dealing with the monsters is done with both the remote and nunchuk, shaking them in appropriate directions to throw the monsters off your back or side. I was pleased to see that the motion-sensitive Wii remote was being used in a more complex way than simply "waggle chaotically until something happens."

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is every bit as nerve-wracking as any other game in the series, at least in the short bit that I got to experience. I'll be looking forward to get further scared out of my wits when it comes out for the Wii later this year.