Inside 'Vile: Exhumed' — A Conversation with Developer Cara Cadaver | PAX East 2025
Going into PAX East, I hadn’t heard of Vile, but I’ve slowly become obsessed with it. Anyone who knows even a small detail about me knows I love horror—hell, even if you’ve just seen me, I have multiple horror film-related tattoos. However, I’m not always the biggest fan of horror games. Phasmophobia broke me, and I’m perpetually stressed about horror games. But there’s something so different about Vile—it’s less your typical horror (no jumpscares, at least that I experienced) and more of a twisted, stressful story.
Vile is explored by browsing through a computer: its files, emails, and web browsers. You’re unraveling the aftermath of one man’s obsession with horror adult film actress Candy Corpse. Vile: Exhumed is an expanded version coming soon—essentially a Director’s Cut.
There were moments during the demo that made me laugh (cats!), and others that just made me sink into my chair.
I had the chance to sit down with Cara Cadaver of Final Girl Games and chat about the game. She is beyond kind and such an enjoyable person to talk to—the planned interview turned into a full conversation.
For you personally, what was the scariest part of making the game?
The scariest part of making the game; kind of throughout its entire development I really had to like, dig back into personal things that happened and draw from that. So the whole thing was day to day, kind of mentally exhausting. I honestly would say that was the scariest part. Going back into memories as I was making it speaking to people who related, like, far too closely to it, it's just…I think that.
So was it really hard for you to separate the game from your own personal experience?
At times it was pretty intertwined, but I tried to do a lot of self-care and, you know, really check in with my support system and stuff. But it was also a good creative outlet and therapeutic, so I think that helps too, that it was very cathartic.
That’s what I was going to say, stuff like this is so heavy for women. So it does get really hard to…you know, blur. And it’s good to have a good like support system for sure.
And in the new Exhumed version that's coming out there's even more of that, so it's been the same process of; work on the game, deal with my feelings. It’s almost like therapy. Do Vile, got that therapy, then you go back and do Exhumed and it’s a second therapy session. For sure, it's been wild, we're digging deeper.
You’re now working with DreadXP versus doing everything solo. How has it been working with them?
I'm super lucky, Dread is amazing so I'm pretty much still given that creative freedom, and everybody is really understanding of the subject matter and treats it with sensitivity and respect, and everybody's really on board for making it meaningful and good.
I was explaining to a friend before I came here (PAX East), I think this could be really important for people who don't already know to see what women go through. Not even just in sex work, in anything. No, day to day. Like, this is like a very exaggerated version of so many of our experiences.
Like, you know, women always have to be sheepish or, if a guy is walking at you, “Oh, let me move out of the way.” It's that entitlement, right? We always have to second-guess kindness and, you know, filter ourselves, absolutely. It’s so good to hear that Dread is respectful in helping with that. And respectful is like…I don't know if that's even the right word. They're so supportive and yeah, I'm so lucky.
Technology-wise, what made you go for the 90s aesthetic?
I've always loved that! I love old-school, retro horror. I collect VHS, I collect weird old CRTs, all sorts of bizarre stuff. I just really like working with UI and I really love retro aesthetics, so it just felt like a good mix. It just felt like the right way to tell the story. I really wanted to present the information in a way that wasn't exactly procedural, I guess, let the player kind of navigate it and pick things apart. With the story being stressful, maybe the UI doesn’t have to be stressful. Exactly, yeah! And I even like just the little touch of the screen being curved like a CRT. Thank you! Oh, I'm glad you noticed. It’s cool!
Like I said previously, I do think Vile is a very, very important game. Thank you for bringing it here and talking to me about it!
Thank you, I appreciate that, I'm glad you liked it. Thank you for playing it. Like, thanks for caring about it.