Here’s All The Horror Directors Hideo Kojima Has Put In The DEATH STRANDING Games

With two critically acclaimed features under their belt, it's no wonder that the Philippou brothers caught the eye of horror fan Kojima. In Death Stranding 2, the Talk to Me pair appear as preppers known as the Tar Twins. As A24 partners, will the Philippous make a live-action appearance in the studio's upcoming Death Stranding movie? We sure hope so.

Between promoting The Life of Chuck and working on Carrie, The Exorcist, Clayface and The Dark Tower, Midnight Mass director and modern horror master Mike Flanagan managed to squeeze space in his busy schedule to get scanned by the Kojima machine. Flanagan makes a cameo as a worker in the Northern Environmental Observatory, and players will encounter him during progression of Death Stranding 2‘s main plotline.

No Mike Flanagan cameo would make sense without his right-hand lady, Kate Siegel. A frequent star in many of his films and shows (Hush, The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, to name but a few), Siegel recently made her directorial debut with the existentially terrifying short “Stowaway” featured in 2024's V/H/S/Beyond. She's also set to direct an episode of Flanagan's upcoming Stephen King adaptation series for Amazon, Carrie. In Death Stranding 2, Siegel shows up as Olivia Westbury, who runs the West Fort Knot.

A few months back (I tried to find the exact post to link to here, but the man posts so much it was a Herculean task and I gave up – just take my word for it), Kojima posted an Instagram photo showing off a statue of the terrifying Mother Buddha deity from Taiwanese found-footage horror Incantation. Looking back, this may well have been a thank you gift from director Kevin Ko, who has a cameo in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach as The Ghost Hunter, an appropriately creepy name for the man who made one of the scariest modern found footage flicks to date.

Cyberpunk anime maestro Mamoru Oshii has perhaps one of the most exciting and out of left-field cameos in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The Ghost in the Shell director plays a Pizza Chef who engages Sam in an epic karate battle among the dough balls (the Death Stranding 2 x Domino's Pizza collaboration makes more sense now, right?)

Ok, ok, sure, George Miller isn't a horror director per se, but given his influence over both the Ozploitation and sci-fi genres at large, we're counting him as one of our guys. Being a hardcore Furiosa stan, it was really only a matter of time before Kojima put Miller, who he affectionately refers to as his “God”, in a Death Stranding game. Death Stranding 2 sees the Australian filmmaker don a fetching hat and glasses in his role as Tarman who, as the name suggests, has a special connection to the viscous black liquid that manifests around the Death Stranding world.

Award-winning director Fatih Akin (whose 2019 film The Golden Glove is easily one of the most horrifying serial killer movies out there) makes a cameo appearance in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach as Dollman, whose name speaks for itself. As Sam's puppet companion, Dollman splits his time between giving advice and sitting on the shoulder of Léa Seydoux's Fragile. He's also got some sweet dance moves.

Nicolas Winding Refn reprises his role as Heartman in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, joining Fragile's crew in their task of connecting all of Australia to the chiral network. Don't expect this to be the last Kojima/Winding Refn collaboration you'll see – the pair recently collaborated for a Tokyo-based interactive installation, with more surely to follow from their “beautiful friendship”.

Shaun of the Dead, Last Night in Soho and the upcoming Running Man director Edgar Wright describes himself as a “lapsed gamer“, with his appreciation for the medium seen in frequent gaming references in a lot of his work (Spaced‘s Resident Evil episode remains a particular highlight), so getting a Death Stranding cameo must've been like Christmas coming early. Wright plays a man called Thomas Southerland, who can be found at the Distribution Centre South of Lake Knot City.

While the famed mangaka has only directed one film himself, 2011's Tomio (not to be confused with Tomie, which he wrote but did not direct), Junji Ito's work has served as the basis for plenty of Japanese horror films, including the aforementioned Tomie and its sequels, Uzumaki, Long Dream and Kakashi to name but a few.  Ito's cameo in the first Death Stranding was a bittersweet one, as he, Kojima, Norman Reedus and Guillermo Del Toro had previously been working on a new entry into the Silent Hill franchise that never went any further than the utterly terrifying playable teaser known as P.T. When Konami scrapped the project, Kojima made sure to bring Ito along for Death Stranding, where he plays The Engineer.

Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow, Violent Night, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) appears in Death Stranding as Philip North, a member of Bridges and head of distribution in Distribution Center North of Mountain Knot City. Kojima is a fan of Wirkola's works, so not a huge surprise to see him pop up in the first game.

As well as bringing Junji Ito and Norman Reedus along for his new venture following the cancelled Silent Hills, Kojima also gave Guillermo Del Toro a starring role in Death Stranding as Deadman, an ally to Sam and member of the Bridges' Medical Team. Deadman frequently refers to himself as “Frankenstein's monster”, which could've been a hint towards Del Toro's Frankenstein, set to release later this year. Deadman has a smaller cameo in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, but is no less important to Sam's journey.

Not only is Kojima is a loud and proud MonsterVerse fan , Jordan Vogt-Roberts was also tapped to direct a live-action adaptation of Metal Gear Solid, and so his inclusion in Death Stranding was kind of a no-brainer. Vogt-Roberts has a cameo as the fittingly titled Film Director, holding on to the pre-apocalypse past by studying film, TV and videos from the past.