‘Mouthwashing’ Video Game Adaptation in the Works!!

Mouthwashing is a tough game to recommend without a warning or five. What starts as a story about a spaceship crew stranded after a crash becomes something far more upsetting as the game reveals how they got there. It’s bleak, grotesque, and sometimes difficult to sit through, which makes the prospect of a movie adaptation both exciting and a little concerning.

The right director could do something particularly nasty with its five characters and claustrophobic setting. So much depends on what they’re willing to admit about themselves and each other, and the story needs someone who can make a conversation feel as threatening as anything lurking down a dark corridor. Fortunately, the filmmaker taking this one on has already made The Invitation.

According to new reports, Sony Pictures has acquired the movie rights to Mouthwashing, with Karyn Kusama attached to direct. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi are writing the screenplay, bringing the trio behind The Invitation and Destroyer back together. Scott Derrickson, whose horror credits include Sinister and The Black Phone, will produce alongside C. Robert Cargill and Vince Cheng through Crooked Highway.

What Is ‘Mouthwashing’ About?

Developed by Wrong Organ and published by Critical Reflex, the game follows five crew members aboard the space freighter Tulpar after a devastating crash. With supplies running low and rescue uncertain, their relationships begin to deteriorate. Its nonlinear narrative moves between events before and after the disaster, gradually exposing the decisions that left everyone trapped together. Going much further into the plot would spoil discoveries best experienced firsthand. The way information arrives is essential to Mouthwashing, forcing players to reconsider earlier conversations and their understanding of the crew. An adaptation will have to find its own rhythm for those revelations, particularly when viewers can no longer control how long they spend exploring the ship or sitting with an uncomfortable encounter.

Kusama’s involvement makes that challenge especially interesting. The Invitation gets an extraordinary amount of tension out of people trying to behave normally at a dinner party while their reasons to leave keep accumulating. Kusama understands how a shared history can complicate someone’s response to danger, and how long people will tolerate an awful situation before acknowledging what’s happening. Those instincts feel particularly well suited to the Tulpar. Jennifer’s Body also gives her experience with horror that demands a closer look at who gets hurt, who gets believed, and whose perspective shapes the story. There’s room for a Mouthwashing movie to be visually gruesome, but its treatment of the crew will ultimately determine whether it captures what makes the game so upsetting. With Kusama directing and Hay and Manfredi writing, the adaptation has a promising team to navigate that material.