Kojima Productions has drawn back the curtain on OD just a bit further, courtesy of a brand-new trailer. The enigmatic horror game garnered quite a bit of hype when it was announced at The Game Awards in 2023, due in large part to the pedigree of its head talent.
OD is a collaboration between video game auteur Hideo Kojima and horror-comedy luminary Jordan Peele, making it a probable hodgepodge of the creators’ unique strengths and quirks. It also means that the game will likely be pregnant with hidden meaning: neither creator has a fondness for flippant details in their works. This is the frame of mind through which one should examine the recent OD trailer, as it may be more illuminating than they first appear.
What Does the 'Knock' Mean for OD?
OD May Be About Summoning Something
OD‘s new trailer kicks off with a brief scene of a card being pushed through a closed door—one without an interior handle. It then cuts to a few lines of text, which have had certain words redacted:
TEN YEARS SINCE THE REDACTED
HORROR REDAC, “RED”
THE CURSED REDACTED
HAVE ONCE AGAIN REDACTED
The trailer then shows the back of the card that was pushed through the door, its design depicting a distorted human face covered in open eyes. The subject of the trailer, presumably Sophia Lillis’ character, then turns the card over to reveal a message: “LIGHT THE FIRES TO CELEBRATE THEIR RED REDACTED.” The non-diagetic text continues:
THIS BUILDING WAS
REDACTED FROM
A 3D SCAN OF AN
REDACTED FOUND
IN AN REDACTED
AND THEN, REDA WERE
REDACTE IN A SINISTER RITUAL
There’s a lot to unpack in these early moments alone. Evidently, there was some sort of calamitous event in OD‘s world, and ten years after it, something important has reoccurred. It’s hard to know for sure, given the redactions, but this could be referring to the return of certain evil beings or phenomena—a theory that’s buttressed by later evidence.
The message on the aforementioned card seems relevant. The candle-lighting that will take place later in the trailer is ostensibly part of a celebration ritual, honoring some entity. It’s possible that this “celebration” is the “sinister ritual” referenced in the subsequent text block, or is at least related to it; suffice it to say that the ceremony Lillis’ character performs in the trailer has sinister undertones. As for the origins of the building (presumably the building where the trailer takes place), it’s possible that the structure is somehow linked to whatever entities or forces are being celebrated through the ritual, designed from a “3D scan” of some unknowable artifact or location.
Knock, Knock, Monsters at the Door
The most straightforward passage of the trailer comes next: Lillis’ character enters a room and approaches a shrine adorned with candles, one of which is in the shape of a baby, with the wick taking the place of its umbilical cord. There is also another candle that appears to depict the head of an older child. As Lillis’ character lights the candles, knocks can be heard coming from the closed door to the room. When she lights the newborn baby candle, an infant cries out.
The infant imagery gestures toward themes of rebirth, further reinforcing the theory that the entity featured in the trailer is somehow connected to the “horror” that took place years earlier.
When the older-child candle is lit, it ignites a paper figurine on a miniature carousel, and some inhuman being approaches Lillis from behind. The being’s speech is distorted, but it sounds like it is saying “lock the door,” or perhaps even “knock the door.” The creature then appears to attack Lillis, and the trailer ends.
So what does this all mean, and how does this all relate to OD‘s ‘Knock’ subtitle? Naturally, it’s hard to be absolutely certain, but taking every hint into consideration, and synthesizing them through a cultural lens, it appears that Lillis’ character is summoning some sort of demonic or supernatural entity. She seems to be doing this under duress, as she is clearly frightened, and the earlier shot of the door with no interior handle suggests that she is trapped in a certain location. The photo of a human eye pasted to the window above the shrine, which opens wide once the being enters the room, also communicates a sense of surveillance.
Who or what is compelling Lillis’ character to conduct this ritual? The obvious answer would be that the monster glimpsed in the trailer is the culprit, as it would probably like to be summoned for any number of reasons. Alternatively, she could be following orders from a human director or organization. The building referenced earlier in the text seems to have some innate relationship with the supernatural entity in question, and the mention of a “3D scan” suggests human involvement. Perhaps some group, for whatever reason, constructed a building based on 3D scans of some supernatural, malignant design, and it is this group that’s forcing Lillis’ character to summon the monster.
Either interpretation could explain the “knock” motif. Knocking is a civil method of requesting entry, but it can also be a lure (as Metal Gear fans know too well), an invitation to see who’s there. Depending on who’s knocking, the knocks themselves could even be a threat, a playful, mocking way to flaunt one’s power, as if to say, “you can let me in, or I can let myself in.”
It’s important to note that doors seem to be a prevalent motif in OD. Kojima first announced the game by exiting a wooden door prop onstage at The Game Awards, further indicating the structures’ symbolic significance. Perhaps there is a “door” between the worlds of the human and inhuman, the living and the dead, or the earthly and the demonic. Whatever’s behind the door is knocking, and plans to enter, one way or another.