Chainsaws and Severed Heads: The Appeal of the Horror Genre

Haunted houses,‭ ‬tales of gruesome deaths and vengeful spirits,‭ ‬terrifying movies,‭ ‬and midnight jaunts are all a part of the Halloween experience.‭ ‬People are simply fascinated with scaring themselves out of their wits,‭ ‬and they’ll take the experience of true fear in any form they can get.‭ ‬This fixation carries over into the gaming industry as well,‭ ‬catering to thrill seekers‭ (‬such as myself‭) ‬by producing titles that seek to elicit blood-curdling screams from their players.‭ ‬But why‭? ‬What prompts an average Joe to actively seek out video games that could cause his heart to beat rapidly,‭ ‬his blood pressure to rise,‭ ‬and the potential of soiled underwear‭?

The answer,‭ ‬to me,‭ ‬is quite simple.‭ ‬Human beings require stimulation.‭ ‬Stimulation can come in many different forms,‭ ‬and perhaps one of the most common ways that humans seek out stimulation is through arousing their adrenaline.‭ ‬The adrenaline rush one receives from a moment of sheer terror is quite possibly unmatched.‭ ‬Even though it’s similar to the feeling one gets from being completely engrossed in a horror movie,‭ ‬frightening video games give a much more noticeable feeling of dread and anxiety than any movie ever could.‭ ‬Rather than passively enjoying the action on screen where a screaming woman is about to have her head lopped off,‭ ‬gamers are thrown right into the action.‭ ‬Suddenly,‭ ‬the trepidation of being hunted down by a furious atrocity in the night is not as distant as watching a movie tends to give the impression.‭ ‬Being forced to navigate your digital avatar through a dark,‭ ‬ominous room when accompanied by eerie,‭ ‬atmospheric music and surrounded by things that go bump in the night is more than a few degrees scarier than watching some vapid blonde attempt to outrun Freddy or Jason.

Games such as‭ Silent Hill,‭ Resident Evil,‭ Fatal Frame ‬and‭ Clock Tower are all excellent examples of experiences that seek to terrorize their players through different means of scares.‭ ‬Some employ the classic‭ “‬don’t turn that corner‭!” ‬mechanic,‭ ‬which places the gamer in a precious position.‭ ‬In order to complete a certain objective,‭ ‬one must enter the next room,‭ ‬but what will be waiting‭? ‬Will a zombie shuffle out of hiding‭? ‬What about the appearance of‭ Silent Hill icon Pyramid Head‭? ‬Will he burst through some dingy double doors,‭ ‬brandishing his larger-than-life sword to eviscerate the protagonist? It’s that element of surprise,‭ ‬the state of mind in which you know something’s coming,‭ ‬but you don’t quite know what.‭ ‬That element of surprise can be quite welcome in the lives of those who are a slave to a daily schedule,‭ ‬where everything seems to fall into the same places every single day.‭ ‬Often,‭ ‬those who are looking for an escape turn to video games –‭ ‬namely, those in the horror genre.

They have an appeal for individuals who are not quite suited to role-playing games,‭ first-person shooters ‬or even massively multiplayer online games,‭ ‬because they have a more solitary feel to them.‭ ‬Reliant on the surroundings in-game,‭ ‬items obtained along the way‭ ‬and the wits the player has to draw from,‭ ‬there is very little player interaction.‭ ‬If there were a complete cast of characters to interact with at any given time,‭ ‬the horror factor would be lost.‭ ‬Thus,‭ ‬gamers who are less inclined to socialize while playing are similarly drawn to the more solitary approach,‭ ‬seemingly comfortable with survival horror on the whole.

The next time you boot up‭ Dead Space ‬or‭ Fatal Frame‭ ‬2:‭ ‬Crimson Butterfly,‭ ‬ask yourself why it is you subject yourself to such abominations lumbering toward you as you fend them away with a lead pipe or nothing but a mystical camera.‭ ‬Do you seek to feel‭? ‬Do you enjoy the silence‭? ‬Whatever your reasons are,‭ ‬it’s always a treat to sit back in that easy chair,‭ ‬flip off those pesky lights,‭ ‬and let the game take control of your senses.

Because remember:‭ ‬no matter how real that chainsaw seems as it makes clean,‭ ‬cold slices through your anatomy,‭ ‬it’s just a game.