Videogames Make Better Horror Than Movies? 225
Wired author Clive Thompson has up an article stating that, with today's jaded audiences, videogames are more effective horror-conveyances than movies. Thompson argues that the removal of the fourth wall, placing the player directly into the story, overcomes the obstacles movie-makers face when telling a scary story. "I'll start down a corridor, hear something freaky up ahead, then freeze in panic. Maybe if I stay quiet the monster will go away? S^!t, maybe it's already headed this way, and I should move! But if I move the monster will hear me ... so maybe I should stay quiet ... gaaaaah! Games already seem like dream states. You're wandering around a strange new world, where you simultaneously are and aren't yourself. This is already an inherently uncanny experience. That's why a well-made horror game feels so claustrophobically like being locked inside a really bad -- by which I mean a really good -- nightmare." Do you agree? Is your favorite scary tale a movie ... or a game? (Silent Hill, I'm looking at you.)
no (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I bought a game recently, with which, my first scare was that it required me to install Steam on my box. I broke out in a cold sweat as it quietly inserted its own root kit and changed several registry entries that an unprivileged user could not otherwise touch. I was kept at the edge of my seat every time it phoned home, and I could only guess who it may have been calling. By the time the lawyers were knocking down my doo
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Absolutely. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Absolutely. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
It's worth a play [50megs.com] if you have a retro-gaming fetish.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Really, though, the scariest part of any of these games is how immersive they are, cuz you know a flatmate is going to come and knock on the door or sneak up behind you and say something and you're going to jump twenty feet in the air. "WHAT?!"
Re: (Score:2)
It were uphill both ways and still scary! (Score:2)
You know a game is good when you get scared, even though they only had 17 polygons to draw a person
You think that's basic? Ha ha ha ha ha ha.......
I'd be lying if I said I was absolutely ******* terrified after playing 3D Monster Maze [slashdot.org] on the ZX81... but it certainly did a good job of getting you panicking when you saw Rex coming down the corridor at you. (Shame the guy in that video turns just before he gets eaten, so you don't see Rex close-up).
The ZX81 didn't have "polygons".... it didn't even have colour or high-resolution graphics (and those were the days when 256 x 200 was considered "high reso
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Absolutely. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh holy crap. I totally understand and agree. I remember the first game that scared me was played on my Commodore 64, and it was Alien [wikipedia.org]. It wasn't even a very well-implemented game, but it was fairly consistent with the movie .. you were on the Nostromo, you had to get as many things accomplished as you could with the remaining crew, before the Alien got to them and killed them.
The graphics were pisspoor, but I remember the sound effects and I remember the increase in heartrate when I knew the alien was cl
Re:Absolutely. (Score:5, Funny)
A few minutes ago, my low-level @ just rounded a corner and say a host of red a's headed right for him. Backpedaling and missile weapons bought some time, but soon the biting started, the ! began exploding and the ?'s were burning, until the dreaded ASCII tombstone appeared. The horror... the horror...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
In System Shock, i started out as a hacker that could barely handle a pistol in it's hand. I was weak, ammo was low, scary sounds, scary environment, scary lightning, always low on resources, and then you just wasted a few bullets because you panicked and didn't aim. Very good. Even thou
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Absolutely. (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, the Resident Evil formula (in the early games at least) soured pretty quickly. There's only so many zombies that can come through so many windows before it loses its impact. Silent Hill was a big step up in that, with a far better sense of creeping dread - and one that didn't always lead to a big explosive ZOMBIE THRU TEH WINDOW finale - some of the creepiest sections were those where nothing actually happened at all.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Thief 3. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The Cradle level makes every other "scary" game I've played look like a walk through a daisy-filled park at noon.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
For full impact, play it while alone, at night, with the lights out.
Re: (Score:2)
...some of the creepiest sections were those where nothing actually happened at all.
I heartily second this sentiment. When I was playing F.E.A.R. (which I never finished and should go back to), the sections in which I was creeping along an empty corridor with flickering lights would sometimes actually give me that strange lightheaded fight-or-flight sensation. It probably helps that I play very tactically, rather than blasting through levels at a full sprint. A slow, methodical movement through a level in a crouching position allows plenty of time for tension to build!
Re:Absolutely. (Score:5, Informative)
That's the same reason why Doom 3 stopped being scary, Doom 3 nailed darkness and atmosphere but they over-used monster closets, they never made a lot of *rational* use of using monsters intelligently sneaking up on you. It's better when you're scared shitless looking around for sneaky bastards, then knowing the sneaky bastards are just hidden in "closets" behind walls until you hit a trigger. I have to admit though it did work for a while it's too bad they over-used it.
Re:Absolutely. (Score:5, Interesting)
"Oh, look, a new room with a pillar in it. 10-1 odds there's a monster behind it. In fact, I'll just strafe and fire blind... *BLAM* *GLARG* Yep, sure enough."
I was never creeped out, because EVERY room had a monster in EVERY possible place that it could. Which is cool if you're going for the, "OMFG monsters everywhere!" chaotic sort of scariness, which Doom1-2 did, but they didn't really do that The hell levels are the only part that consistently succeeded in anything like that, and consequently, are just about the only part of the game that I liked. The rest of the time they seemed to be going for "atmospheric, reading-about-scary-stuff, survival-horror creepy", and failing miserably.
All the way from the first 10 minutes or so of fighting (I kind of like the opening scenes and initial chaos after the portal is opened, actually) up to the beginning of the hell levels, I was bored out of my mind. To make things worse, the level design wasn't any good from a run-and-gun perspective, either. Lame. I'd have liked it much better if they'd dedicated the first 1/3 or so of the game to watching the place fall apart under the demonic influence, with more NPCs running around for a while. It would have made the isolation later on more frightening, and they wouldn't have had to rely on their (terrible) attempts at "boo" fright for as long, which may have made it tolerable. By the time that was getting old, you'd be in the hell levels, which they could leave more-or-less as-is.
Re: (Score:2)
I never got around to playing FEAR until recently either, that seems to be pretty damned creepy too.
But yeah, the old RE games were great up until 4, I wasn't impressed by 4.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I was reminded of that moment in HL2, when you get given the shotgun and hear those drainpipes rattle. In fact that level of HL2 is a great exa
Depends on your tastes, I guess (Score:2)
E.g., if I'm allowed to give a counter-anecdote to your anecdote, I'm the exact opposite.
Resident Evil never did much for me. The only "horror" in it for me were the awkward rotational controls and artificial view limitations because of the fixed camera. There was an
Re: (Score:2)
No. (Score:4, Interesting)
But, on the bright side, it's easier to make a specific mood in a game, and make the player be afraid of that, for example - I was absolutely scared of playing Ultima Underworld alone when I was about ten or eleven. There was something in those dark corridors, bones lying around, and the music that provided the tension needed to scare the hell out of me. And it works today, too. Not in the way Doom3 would like us to have, but, for example, BioShock manages to capture the freaky atmosphere perfectly, making you look around your shoulder far more often.
Bioshock (Score:2)
The unique aspect of Bioshock is that the fear of death has been removed. Respawning is fairly painless and I'm armed with a variety of tricks against even the toughest
Re: (Score:2)
Movies can set up every little thing about a scary situation, and you have ZERO control.
But in a game, even if they manage to set up everything just right...when it comes right down to it, you're there to kick the ever loving snot out of whatever 'scary' thing might be around the next corner. You KNOW you're going to get your chance to beat that thing, whereas in a movie, you are completely helpless.
Now, I do have a bit of a bias in that I've never been scared by anything in a movie or in a g
Sure it can. (Score:2)
Mind you, if your adrenaline is kicking in, it's because you're scared and your body is entering a fight-or-flight response. So, yeah, video games can be scary.
That said, really good video games horror requires good pacing and design.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:No. (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
And once you've killed a couple of any given creature, they're no longer scary, as you have established you're more badass than them - Bioshock being the instance du jour, I wa
Re: (Score:2)
I really have to agree with you - most games, threats are things to be dealt with. There is rarely something which has a very good chance of catching you and is likely to tear you to little bits - which is understandable, as a game would be rather disheartening if your survival chances were the same as a bit player in a horror movie.
Half-Life, the Blast Pit. That freaky fucking banging tentacle beak thing. Yes, you eventually kill it, but it's immune to your puny weapons. All you can do is try to evade it while prepping the engine to blast. THAT was creepy, scary, and fun. I think there's something to be said for putting enemies in games that cannot be directly defeated, only evaded.
Most definately (Score:2)
Don't pick up that gun! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Games are scarier (Score:2, Interesting)
The screeches of the monkeys in System Shock 2 always freak me out, no matter how many times I play it. (playing BioShock right now and it's nowhere near as scary as SS2 IMHO)
Or the sounds Haunts make in the Thief series.. eek.
Re: (Score:2)
So true.... (Score:2)
It can be better (Score:4, Funny)
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/09/29 [penny-arcade.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Also, in many horror games going on rampage against an enemy won't help much, and you're forced to run.
One of the scariest game scenarios I played was Resident Evil 3, being chased by the Nemesis monste
Alien Doom Total Conversion (Score:5, Insightful)
For the first 20 minutes or so you are creeping through corridors, always wondering what might appear around the next corner. Nothing much actually happens except that the corridors gradually become more and more covered in alien slime. You go through several levels without actually seeing any enemies, even though you know you must be getting closer to their lair.
All of a sudden an alien jumps at you out of nowhere.
I have never before and never since been more scared by a computer game.
Mod parent insightful! (Score:2)
I've also played the Alien Doom mod, and i loved it. Altho i also felt the same fear by playing the Aliens game in the C64, stage 2. You know you had to go through an alien area, that aliens come out of everywhere and you can't run away. And still, you have to go there.
Re: (Score:2)
What, you mean you'd choose to NOT go there if you could? Why? You're there to kick some alien butt, why on earth would you be scared? Silliness.
They Hunger (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Playing as
Re: (Score:2)
The first "Aliens versus Predator" wasn't a perfect game (the AI, for example, was... iffy), but when you play as a Marine you can really get creeped out. The aliens aren't particularly subtle but they are fast - you can't outrun them and you can't take many hits from them when they reach you. The environments are dark and you have to pick between night-vision or the motion detector - and either way the facehuggers are really tough to spot. More like the movie than the movie was, if you follow.
Playing as an alien is fun in an entirely different way. You can climb on any surface, hide on the ceiling and pounce, etc. More like Spider-Man than any of the Spider-Man games.
Some of the best mood lighting I've ever seen. That first level where you encounter the aliens moving down the corridor, shit! After enough play I got so I could semi-reliably pop their heads off with a short burst as they ran but God help me if my timing was off. Never ceased to be scary. The only thing missing is that the human level needed to have more Marine friendlies doing their bit.
Re: (Score:2)
When you think about, that is exactly what I'd expect. Kudos to the developers!
Yes (Score:2, Insightful)
Halflife, duh... (Score:5, Interesting)
EG, the tension where you are creeping through the silo with the giant tentacles, the first time you meet the big shark-thingy, the elation and then horror as the marines come, etc....
A movie wouldn't be nearly as immersive.
Re: (Score:2)
I disagree. (Score:5, Insightful)
It comes down to good writing. The reason most horror movies aren't particularly effective is because the writing is such garbage. If these writes were to produce scripts for games those games would be equally ineffective at being scary.
If anything, I'd argue that it's easier to make a good horror movie than it is to produce a scary game. It's very easy to manage pacing in a movie. The entire thing is nicely packaged and the director has complete control over the movie. With a game, in addition to the underlying plot a creator has to be concerned with how the gamer interacts with the game. How to convey the proper atmosphere and provide appropriate challenges without making the game tedious.
Ultimately, this is the problem I've found with nearly all horror games, including the Resident Evil series. The game hits a point where they're wandering back and forth trying to find something, or are given these odd tasks for the sake of providing some level of gameplay ultimately reminding me that I'm just playing a game. With a movie or a novel, I know it's fake, but I don't have to worry about some gameplay mechanic disrupting the experience and thus it's easier for me to become engrossed in the story.
Very different experiences (Score:5, Interesting)
When you're playing a game, that avatar on the screen is, for all intents and purposes, you. You're not just watching some movie star go down the stairs to their doom, you have to choose to go down those stairs yourself. The experience of that sort of scare is very different, and to me much more personal, than the one-sided character/spectator relationship in films and such.
The only experience that for me sort of blurs that line between those two types of scares is listening to an audio play, such as radio drama or Big Finish Productions' audio CDs. When I'm listening to one of those I usually have my eyes closed and my imagination turned up high, and thus tend to see things from more of a first-person perspective in my mind's eye. A good horror story on audio can therefore approach the levels of immersion that a good video game provides, without being interactive.
Bioshock.. Houdini Splicers (Score:2)
I love horror movies, very few have actually scared me. FEAR creeped me out.. Call Of Cthulu Dark Side of the Earth, that creeps me out havent finished it yet. System Shock 2 gave me some good jumps (back in the day) Clive Barkers undying had me going good. The original Alone in the Dark... yea that was creepy.
Video games are full of titles that I got scared from, horror movies not so much. But damn, I love wel
Silent Hill (Score:2)
Another thing is the first-person perspective, and the fear you experience from having "lived" similar situations in the past. You hear some dogs howling, you can't see barely anything, while your radio keeps playing that static louder and
The scariest experience I'd ever had (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyone who's played it will no doubt remember the chilling moment while you tiptoe down the Rope Hallway and the red light comes on, looking up and coming face to face with Vengeance.
Silent hill (Score:5, Insightful)
Silent Hill games make you feel like at any moment you could be jumped by some insanely powerful monster and then it toys with you with the radio, a little noise here, a little growl there, is it just random noise or is a complete freak out monster about to maim you? who knows? These things get to us, we have no idea -how- to rationally deal with these things because they are beyond all logic, movies we can go "CGI" "Make up" "hero must survive" and then we play silent hill and suddenly it's "oh fuck, what the hell is going on?"
One thing I would note is the cultural differences, Japanese horror tends to work on tension and supernatural things. Ghosts, bumps in the night, general feeling of unease. Where as Western horror tends to be more gore and shock, the gore and shock has long ago lost it's shock value to us adults, where as the feeling of tension is very hard to break no matter what.
Compare Resident evil (Western horror style) with Silent Hill (Japanese horror style) and you'll see one is scary for a while, where as the other continues to be scary even if you're in a safe room with nothing creepy ever.
And just because it needs mentioning. The mannequin beheading event in Silent hill 3 is the scariest moment I've ever had in a game, just insanely creepy even though it presented no danger to me, it felt like I HAD to leave that room or something would behead me next.
Re: (Score:2)
BTW, Have you guys thought that making a Silent Hill series (a-la "24" or "Lost") would be a hit?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Silent Hill 4 (Score:2)
I'm also casting my vote for Eternal Darkness. Excellent game. It did an amazing job with wearing down your nerves in time to punch you in the gut with something that makes you wish you had put plastic on your couch. Of particular note is when you 'see' your
Re: (Score:2)
SH4 gave you candles which would let you be safe though, it wasn't great but it would sop you being hurt even if that room was uber creepy still.
Agreed (Score:2)
It also helps to be very comfortable with the controls. I've played FPS's long enough that the controls are extension to my brain. I think forward and my character m
Movies rule (Score:2, Insightful)
But there's a difference between that (relatively) easy videogame shock and the sense of deep disq
Project Firestart. (Score:2)
That reminds me of this other survival horror game in the 80's. Project Firestart. Has anyone here played it?
apples to apples please (Score:2)
The examples I can think of are The Ring, Blair Witch Project, (
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Video games and movies are completely different (Score:2)
Now a video game, think ab
I'm really dating myself here... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
My vote goes to.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well.. (Score:3, Informative)
Doom 3, anyone? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course, I, uh, only got around to playing it maybe a year ago... I'm behind the times, I know.
On the topic of HL zombie mods, have you tried Heart of Evil [gamespy.com]?
Also, for the original Unreal Tournament, Spatial Fear [gamespy.com] was a pretty good horror SP mod. Some of the enemies (especially the early ones) are kind of cheesy, but considering that it's just a mod for an old-ass multiplayer FPS, it occupies quite a few of the "most memorable gaming experiences" slots
Yes (Score:3, Insightful)
I think there's three reasons:
1. A game is more immersive.
2. The game probably gets a lot more thought put into it than a horror movie.
3. The horror movie genre has become the "virtual snuff film" genre and caters to sick fucks.
Mod me flame bait for #3 if you must, but I completely stand by it.
They're releasing a "Art Of Bioshock" book. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an "Art Of Hostel" or "Art Of Saw" book.
Silent Hill 2 (Score:2)
They're each unique in their own ways (Score:2)
As has been stated already, video games can be more immersive. You're actually controlling a lot of the action. So in a sense, you have a more vested interest in preserving your life. So when that zombie jumps through the window, it's more tense reacting to and dealing with it.
But what movies have going from them is the helpless lack of control. Take the Residen
Weak horror films...games filling the void (Score:3, Insightful)
I really enjoy horror films. It's a shame there are so few good ones. Blood and gore aren't scary, they're just gross. Pulling your audience in, making them believe one thing and then jerking the carpet out from under them leaves a much deeper impact. The gaming industry is learning this.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Saw" for it's suspense. It wasn't really a gory film at all despite what the author of TFA says. I'd wager only a few gallons of fake blood were used in both Saw movies. "Saw II" and the pit of needles... that freaked me out enough that I was squirming in the theater seat and turning my head away from the screen. We each have our own deepest fears. "Dusk til Dawn" had blood by the 55 gallon drum, but it wasn't scary at all. "Hostel," rated as the scariest movie of 2006, was pathetically tame and generally stupid. (Push the eye back in, idiot, don't snip it off.) The wife discovering her husband had killed in "What Lies Beneath" or the little boy's reaction of "You weren't supposed to help her," in "The Ring" were classic, gut-wrenching twists.
I played the BioShock demo. Once I got past the immature gore, it did develop into a layered, creepy environment with a fairly original story. I didn't like it well enough to buy it, but with the lack of quality horror films, I may start turning to horror games more often. I just hope they aren't all FPS since that's my least favorite genre.
Any wagers on a Cthulu MMO?
One word: Bioshock (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
To this day, the sound of a monkey followed by the sound of -- what we would most likely consider -- an energy discharge still has me clawing to switch from my wrench over to my gun. Those monkeys were evil.
In a game where every bullet was precious, using them on those monkeys was well spent. System Shock 2 is still, at least in my memory, the best survival horror game I've ever played. (Note: I have not tried Bioshock yet). I felt completely involved with the character and the world. It wasn't some
Re: (Score:2)
Still, Bioshock certainly has it's moments. (Dentist.)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. That was the most awesome moment in the whole game.
There's a very similar part in Bioshock. Works every time!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And the first appearance of the Pinky? "Wow, huh. That looks tough. HOLYCRAPITSCOMINGHOLYCRAPITSCOMING!"
Re: (Score:2)
It's like those crappy movies where they just make a sudden LOUD sound in order to "scare" you. But you're not really scared in those cases just _startled_, because after the movie you laugh and that's it.
A friend sneaking up
Psychological thrillers (Score:2)
And who says videogames don't have that? In Silent Hill 1, due to bad decisions in the game, I had to kill Cybil (a cop in the game who helped you go through a lot of stuff) because she went zombie.
As I approached and she tried to give me a last shot, I had to give her the final blow