Psychological horror is a subgenre that combines horror and psychological fiction. The genre focuses on mental, emotional, or psychological states in order to frighten and disturb the audience; often focusing on psychological fears like madness, anxiety, guilt, and paranoia. The genre uses elements of mystery and characters who have unstable, reliable, or disturbed psychological states, each element is used to enhance the distressing and disturbing atmosphere. 

Mouthwashing is a psychological horror game that was published on Steam on September 26, 2024, by Critical Reflex. Mouthwashing follows the 5-person crew of Tulpar, a freighter spaceship owned by Pony Express. At the start of the game, the ship is crashed into a meteor, leaving the crew stranded in space with limited food, supplies, and oxygen. At a certain point, they decide to see what they’ve been transporting for months on end and when they check the cargo, they find boxes of mouthwash, which becomes what they live off of, despite the high alcohol content. The crew consists of Curly (Captain/Pilot), Jimmy (Co-pilot), Anya (Nurse), Swansea (Mechanic), and Daisuke (Intern). When the ship crashes, Curly is near-fatally injured. Since he is no longer capable of fulfilling his duties, Jimmy steps into the role of Captain. The player sees the game through the eyes of Jimmy, and his descent into madness as the crew’s limited time dwindles.

Mouthwashing is told in a non-linear narrative through the eyes of Jimmy and Curly. As you play the game, you start to realize that Jimmy is an unreliable narrator. Characters through his eyes are shown as the extremes of whatever their personalities are (Anya is shown as extremely weak and incapable, Daisuke is a stupid teenager, etc). Curly may also be a bit unreliable, because the remnants of Jimmy’s perception of the characters stay. Except for Jimmy through Curly’s eyes, that version of Jimmy is very unreliably shown, as we know that Jimmy isn’t actually like that. 

Throughout the game, there is a lot of symbolism that you might miss the first time around, I know I did. Recently, I rewatched a playthrough of the game and noticed a lot that I hadn’t previously.

There is an overarching theme of taking responsibility for your actions (or inaction in some cases). Each person in this game has something they need to take responsibility for. Jimmy has to take responsibility for what he did to Anya; Curly has to take responsibility for his lack of action in helping; Anya has to take responsibility for her lack of qualifications to be a nurse, as well as for her pregnancy; Swansea has to take responsibility for being an alcoholic during his children’s upbringing; and Daisuke needs to take responsibility for not doing anything with his life, despite only being 18.

Now, getting into the symbolism. After the crash, Curly is entirely dependent on Anya, and she can barely handle giving him his pills. This is a symbol of Anya’s pregnancy, as well as the baby itself since it would also be dependent on Anya and she cannot handle either of these responsibilities. The reason Anya cannot handle her pregnancy is because it is heavily implied that Jimmy assaulted her. There is a pre-crash flashback where Anya asks, “Why do you think Pony Express put locks on the medbay, but not the sleeping quarters?” and Curly responds, “Probably the same reason they put a lock on the cockpit. Safety.” This conversation alludes to Anya’s later suicide in the medbay and Curly’s later injury in the cockpit. Neither of these locked spaces are safe for them. 

Another symbol in the game includes the dead pixel that Anya sees. During the same conversation as the locks on the doors, Anya tells Curly there is a dead pixel on the screen. Curly looks, but ultimately doesn’t see it. The dead pixel is supposed to represent not only Anya, but Anya’s assault. I think this is because not everyone can see the dead pixel the first time they look, but some may (perhaps they already know the pixel is there, or maybe they have a device with a dead pixel). The same can be said for victims of assault. They may see the signs in other people, while outsiders may not at first look. Curly, in particular, may not see the “pixel” because he is blind to Jimmy’s wrongdoings. Unfortunately for Curly, by the time he realizes what his friend is capable of, it is too late for everyone aboard. 

Swansea’s symbolism comes from the “Swan” in his name, as swans tend to mercy kill their young when injured. Swansea’s “young” in this case would be Daisuke, who becomes injured after Jimmy pressures him into drugging Swansea and sneaking into the damaged vent in Utility. Jimmy won’t do anything to actually help Daisuke’s pain since the rubbing alcohol is used to drug Swansea, all that is available is the mouthwash, which has too much sugar to actually do anything good. Daisuke’s symbolism is in the hibiscus flowers present on his shirt and the grave in one of Jimmy’s hallucinations. Hibiscus flowers can represent an early death or how life goes by fast. Daisuke is only 18 when he gets added to the Tulpar’s voyage at the last minute, as well as when he dies.

Some extra things that don’t have as long-winded an explanation would be the board game and the scene with Jimmy and Curly’s chairs in the cockpit. The game has 5 pieces, each representing a different character in the game. One by one, as they die, their pieces are knocked over. The chairs are located by the controls in the cockpit. While Curly’s chair is facing forward, Jimmy’s chair is turned to the side. This is representative of Jimmy going down the “wrong” path.

Indie Game companies are always full of symbolism like this and I look forward to seeing what Critical Reflex does next.