Horror in the Atmosphere (rambling)

Genres are something of an enigma to me. I've heard a million people argue that genres aren't important. Just go with what you enjoy! Music is a pointed example of this. Plenty of times people have told me, "Jeremiah, listen to music that is pleasing to you, don't listen to the genre!". And that's beautiful on paper, but fascism is beautiful on paper, too. Have you ever tried to carry a conversation with these people? Their massive inability to specialize leaves them babbling incoherently about the single of the week on the radio. I'm not saying that everyone needs to be boxed into their genres of choice, like it was a social caste, but for the love of God, choose something and get to know it.

For quite some time now horror has been my genre of choice in most things (he said, in an elegant transition). Maybe it appeals to my innate tendency to be morbid in nature, but scary things have always been my bag. Even when I was an apple cheeked, little, boy, I remember staying up late and watching The X-Files, alone in the dark; huddled under a quilt.

The X-Files isn't exactly dictionary definition horror, but I think it has held up the spirit for a long time. Horror has gotten the short end of the proverbial stick as far as genre identification goes. With so many facets in the horror jewel, it's hard to identify what's what. A person could argue that Hostel is horror, but someone could also argue that I Am Legend is horror. I like to think that examples like those two are movies with horror elements, but not crisp, straight line, horror.

Elemental horror, horror broken down to its most basic piece, is something that is hard to find these days. In America, at least. Without coming off like an annoying, tail wearing, "kawaii ^_^", Japanophile, let me say that Japan has been destroying America in terms of horror for ages. This is because the Japanese have a long cultural history of scaring the hell out of each other, and have learned that monsters are scary when you can't see them. Let's bring this back to a video game perspective quick.

Everyone and their nukekubi has been blowing a lot of air about how Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the most terrifying thing since Opera forgot to put her make up on. And while I'd sooner flay my own fingernails off with a flat head screwdriver than become another honking goose in the hyping flock, yes, it's scary enough to have made me rethink just how thirst I really am on a few late nights. The point is, literally nothing happens for the first few hours of Amnesia. I don't think you can take damage even if you try for at least the first hour. And even then it happens because a section of all doesn't like you getting to cozy to it.

The antithesis of Amnesia: The Dark Descent in this regard is most likely Dead Space 2; a game that opens with a person being impaled, having their face melt, tendrils poke out, and then scream in agony not 6 inches from your freshly woken eyes, all while the intro credits are still on the screen. What happened to pacing? This isn't to say that Dead Space is bad. I played the absolute shit out of Dead Space 1, but it just wasn't scary. Sure, I jumped the first time a possum playing Necromorph sliced my knees off, but by chapter 3 I was just shooting every corpse I came across from a distance out of insurance.

Living in anguish of the thought that grotesquely misshapen nightmare creatures are waiting to give you an impromptu tracheotomy is the vessel that drives proper horror. Being to afraid to explore a small room because you're so sure that when you turn around there will be an abomination standing in the door frame is the atmospheric hole-in-one.

This atmosphere is what makes or breaks the entire experience. Hearing the tiny creatures that you've read about in a bloody journal scurry around the insides of the walls is scary. Knowing they're there, and that at any moment they could break out, skitter sharply up your chest, and plant serrated fangs into your throat, is scary. Being lost in a dark basement, trying desperately to relight your lantern, hearing boards break in the distance and not knowing if it's the rotting weight of disrepair or the subjects of nightmares breaking from their prisons, that's terrifying. That is atmosphere.

Yes, I'm aware of the irony that Frictional, the company that made Amnesia, and its spidery predecessor's, is not Japanese (they're Swedish, for anyone keeping score). This just goes to show that country of origin isn't a big deal, though. Unless its America.

Like I said earlier, The United States has been dragging its heels on the pacing and atmosphere front; and I feel this is most evident in movies. The professional-ish writer that I am, I researched what Americans called the scariest movies of last year. Contenders were Paranormal Activity 3, a third installment prequel (in the industry known as a "cash cow") trying desperately to get in on that atmosphere that overly critical jerks bang on and on about, by throwing in humor and fake-out startle scares. And Insidious, a Poltergeist clone with startle scares. Shine on you crazy diamonds.