“The wave crashed on the far side of the mirror. I brought you the heart, witch, now bring me the terror”. – Alan Wake 2.
Late one night, a naive but stubborn 12-year old begged his Dad to watch the film Alien alongside him. After all, he wouldn’t be scared, he wasn’t a kid anymore, honestly – he was 12 after all… I wasn’t afraid of the dark or things that went bump in the night like my baby sister and I promised, begged and pestered my father to let me watch the scary film with him, I was tough like him I said.
My dad was tired, still in his work uniform from a long shift and relented, the lights were turned off, the surround sound was switched on and I watched every shadow, heard every rustle and was indeed tough. Or at least, for about the first 20 minutes, at which point I crept behind the cushion pillow for the remainder of the film, peaking over the top from my impromptu shield. To this day, I have never been more terrified of a piece of media.
Alien is one of my favorite films, in fact all things horror, be they films, games or books are some of my most consumed and sought after media genres. Intrigued even then, which my father saw as he laid out all the information, described the kind of film it was, told me I was far too young and I would have nightmares for weeks, but he gave me the choice to try it, forewarning me, it wasn’t real, just a film with people playing pretend and a man dressed up as a monster.
I was terrified for weeks, and even watching it as an adult brings that vivid memory back. Yet, despite experiencing many horror films and tv shows since then, it is the only film that has truly ever scared me. ‘A man dressed up as a monster’ stuck and I find myself affecting a stony disposition, enjoying the atmosphere but unable to shake my own agency and ability to simply turn off the tv, leave the room or perhaps just hide behind a pillow. Horror books are the same, many are haunting, but they never ‘scare’ me.
Video games though, they scare the shit out of me. Dead Space, Alien: Isolation, SOMA, Metro, amazing video games designed to scare you – but it isn’t just the horror games, Half-Life 2’s Highway 17, The Last of Us’ Pittsburgh, Fallout 3’s Washington, Crysis 2’s New York City, even Netherstorm in World of Warcraft used to send shivers up my spine. Many of these games lean into a scary/horror element of course, they exhale atmosphere, Alien: Isolation especially was my achilleas heel, delving into the world of my scariest film experience, but in a like for like situation, even a mildly threatening video game triggers real fear and anxiety in me that no film can compete with.
A YouTube content creator, Joseph Anderson, did a fantastic video piece describing his experience with the inverse of my own feelings. He described that having agency in a video game, controlling the player character, having decision capabilities, removed that fear that he experienced in film, that removal of agency, of control, freedom for anything to happen to the character outside of his input (including death of the protagonist), nurtured that insidious feeling of terror. The points were well made and I could understand the perspective, but I couldn’t relate that to my own experiences at all.
As with most art forms, the reality falls entirely to the subject in play. Jump scare, monster, atmospheric, prejudices, presentation, story, characterisation, spiders…, they all play elements, and a work that can lean on all, especially toward the audiences personal biases will always be the scariest to that person.
However, I do strongly believe that video games are a uniquely special form of art for horror. They provide one a level of agency, in particular agency in a world and story that can contain any atmosphere which when done right, whether fantastical or sci-fi, realism or alien, are believable, genuine and true.
If I imagine the dark, dripping corridors of The Nostromo, the cold and haunting blackness of The Thing’s American Base, the abundant iterations of Count Dracula’s stoic, isolated castle, they all paint a terrifying and believable reality, but one that (to me) is somehow detached, taking place behind the safety of a screen. The outcome is chosen, and I feel myself as a spectator, a step removed – that person with the annoying cough in the Cinema, constantly reminding you of where you are.
The medium of Video Games is unique, with a power of agency that draws you in, dropping you directly on the yellow-brick road with only the escape menu as safety. First person or third, voiced or un-voiced, named or un-named, you are an internal agent in that world, with input and control, stepping through your screen, not bound by it. You’re there.
Of course video games can utilise all the same tools as other mediums, but comparatively a film or book, even combined with the best imagination and belief to transport you there is either wholly imagined or without the level of control that a video game can transpose. In a game, you are walking down the dimly lit corridor, you have to interact with the door to open it, you need to chose to investigate the noise, or not. It isn’t just those key moments either, every step, every change in direction all soaks through you, building toward a level of immersion that can’t be duplicated. It adds a concrete foundation that enhances all the other layers around it, that shadow that crossed the screen, the character, you, now demands a reaction. The scrape of metal to your side that brings your crosshair up, you are no longer the train on its tracks, it’s live action and every tiny detail is soaked up and processed, you can’t help but react in a manner true to the world you’re in and thus it becomes a self-fulfilling loop.
Does this ultimately make video games the ‘best’, or ‘scariest’ as a medium? No… Subjectivity will always be the biggest driving matter, and whilst video games can impose a level of atmosphere from your player-controlled agency, film, shows and book all have their own individuality and driving factors, there’s no good or bad here and the choice is where the magic comes from, we are fortunate to live in a time when there is such a plethora of quality across each and more mediums are becoming utilised and brought forward for their own individual strengths. But to date, video games are unique and the agency they impose sets you into the world, into that atmosphere and the tension that causes, whether the driving force of a setting or the backdrop, are an immersion unmatched by other mediums.
“If you’re hearing this, you’re stuck here too”. – Returnal.