18. American McGee's Alice

First appeared in: American McGee's Alice (2000)

When Lewis Carroll first dreamed up the character of Alice and sent her spiralling down the rabbit hole, we're not sure this is entirely what he had in mind. Dark, twisted and clutching a bloody knife, American McGee's interpretation of the children's story icon is an inspired medley of the benign and the macabre.

Set some time after the Wonderland and Looking Glass adventures we're all familiar with, McGee's twisted fairy tale sees the smock-sporting heroine left as sole survivor when her house (and family) burn to the ground. A botched suicide attempt sees her committed so, bonkers and catatonic, she retreats into a disturbing and much darker vision of Wonderland. You can easily argue that Carroll's vision of Alice harboured a dark subtext, but in terms of sheer, twisted sadism, McGee's take on the character wins it hands down. After all, the Red Queen looks a hell of a lot less intimidating when Alice shivs her with a kitchen knife.