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Videogames Make Better Horror Than Movies?

Posted by Zonk on from the i-scream-you-scream-we-all-scream dept.

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.)

4 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. no by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  2. Absolutely. by oxidiser · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've never been scared by a movie, ever. But I almost soiled myself the first time I played Resident Evil (the part where the dogs jump through the window in particular).

    1. Re:Absolutely. by TopShelf · · Score: 5, Funny

      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...

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
  3. Alien Doom Total Conversion by SkunkPussy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I heard good things about Alien Doom so when I finally downloaded it I turned off the lights to get the most from the experience.

    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.

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    SURELY NOT!!!!!