When is the last time a horror movie actually scared you? How often do you read a movie review and they describe it as “I was laughing more than I was scared”? Now, when is the last time a horror videogame scared you? I’m willing to bet that it is pretty much every time you play one. Read on to find out why videogame horror has surpassed movie horror.
Horror Movies
Movie horror has taken a roller coaster ride where it focuses on pop culture and current trends to try and make money rather than really trying to scare you. We have gone from monster movies and creature features in the 50’s, to more realistic thrillers of the 60’a and 70’s (the golden age of horror movies), to more monster movies and slashers in the 80’s, to teen slashers in the 90’s, and now we are back with more realistic horror movies again in the 00’s.
When I say “realistic horror movies”, I’m talking about things that can and possibly do happen in real life. Things like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, and more recently, The Devil’s Rejects, Wolf Creek and Hostel. These are the kind of movies that have proven to be scary in the long run because imagined monsters, unstoppable killers, little possessed dolls, or supernatural occurrences can’t happen, but making a wrong turn or being in the wrong place at the wrong time can and does happen. That is why that style of movies still manages to scare us. We can picture ourselves in the same situations, and that is what keeps us up at night. I’m not saying that the Friday the 13th movies or other popular series aren’t fun to watch. I’m just saying they aren’t all that scary.
A large part of this fall of horror films is because the focus of why we watch horror movies has greatly changed over the years, and that combined with the fact that most horror fans have seen so much we are desensitized to it at this point. We watch because we like the blood and the gore and to see how far they were allowed to go with the kills. We root for the bad guys because the main characters are disposable. Honestly, it is pretty darn hard to care about characters that make so many dumb decisions, as is the horror movie cliché. It is hard to get scared when you don’t care what really happens, and that is the ultimate problem with most horror films.
Horror Videogames
Videogame horror, on the other hand, is pretty much always scary. The difference here is that YOU are the character, and in order to keep playing and see what is around the next bend, you are fighting for your videogame life. There are all of the same themes and clichés in videogame horror as there are in movie horror, but when it is you running from the serial killers in Clock Tower 3, or exploring a creepy school in a teen slasher like Obscure, or fighting off ghosts in Fatal Frame, the experience is 100x scarier.
Constantly hunting for ammo and health keeps you moving forward so you go deeper and deeper into the story and the monsters and everything else that is there to scare you. You go and do the stupid clichéd things like exploring the dark stairway that is full of monsters because you care about your character and want to see them survive. And, usually, the only way out is to find that key to open the safe to unlock the jewel that opens the statue that gives you another key so you can open a door.
Videogame horror also benefits from the format itself and the technology driving it. In a horror movie, you only have 90-120 minutes to introduce characters, begin the story, reach a climax, and end the story. But in a horror videogame, you have hours upon hours to devote to character development and the story can peak several times rather than just once or twice. The technology also allows videogames to look better and sound better than most horror movies. Developers use this advantage, particularly with the sound, to try and scare us with everything at their disposal rather than relying on a single jump scare or kill to reach a high note.
Bottom Line
The main thing to remember is this. You are scared constantly in a horror videogame, but only occasionally in a horror movie. And isn’t that the whole point?
My Favorites
Just for reference, here are my top 10 horror movies and horror videogames. I show a definite lean towards certain types of games and movies (I love zombies, I can’t help it), but I think my arguments are still valid.
Movies: 1.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) 2.Dawn of the Dead (1978) 3.Psycho (1960) 4.Wolf Creek (2005) 5.Fulci’s “Zombie” (1979) 6.Dead Alive (1992) 7.Saw (2004) 8.Shaun of the Dead (2004) 9.Wild Zero (2000) 10.Alien (1979)
Games: 1.Fatal Frame 2 (Xbox) 2.Resident Evil 2 (PSX,N64) 3.Resident Evil 4 (GC) 4.Silent Hill (PSX) 5.Clock Tower 3 (PS2) 6.Condemned (X360) 7.Doom 3 (Xbox) 8.F.E.A.R. (PC, X360) 9.Dead Rising (X360) 10.Eternal Darkness (GC)
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