Videogames Make Better Horror Than Movies?

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.)

Comments

no

[jollyreaper]

The thought of playing a video game in no way fills me with the same sense of horror as the thought of watching a Uwe Boll movie based on the game.

Re:Absolutely.

[TopShelf]

There's just no CG replacement for the human imagination.

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...