There was a piece posted on Wired yesterday titled “Are horror games redefining the genre?” The author, Colette Bennett says that she’s a fan of “WTF?” horror movies, such as Poltergeist and Event Horizon, which encourage the audience to ask “what the fuck” is in there (“that house” or “that spaceship,” etc.)? She argues that video games are filling a void left by cinema in terms of offering scares, and asks these questions: “Why aren’t the films able to generate the same powerful reactions the games did, even though they are telling very similar stories? What do the games have that films can’t seem to capture?”

There really isn’t much of a question to explore here. Video games in general are more popular than ever, and part of that is a larger focus over the last decade or so on narrative. And, as she points out, video games are popular in the first place because they offer a more immersive/interactive experience. Horror, like sci-fi or fantasy, is part of that. If you’re wondering why games are offering a better horror experience, the real answer is economics. A team of game designers can dream up storylines, monsters, special effects as big as their imaginations, as they don’t face the financial, logistical and many other limitations that film is subject to. It’s pretty simple, really.

Furthermore, to say that there aren’t many good “WTF?” movies made anymore, is only convincing if you’re limiting yourself to really mainstream horror stuff – and even then, you’re on rocky ground. Some recent, great WTF? movies off the top of my head: Session 9, The Devil’s Backbone, The Mothman Prophecies, Kairo, Uzumaki, Pitch Black, The Grudge and The Others. To be fair, though, just because Bennett claims to be a horror fan, doesn’t mean she’s a horror nerd, so it’s easy to take a look at recent Hollywood stuff and see a dearth of certain kinds of films.

What really craps all over her credibility, though, is this paragraph:

“I think I was made a horror fan around age 8. I blame Ridley Scott for making superlative films like Alien. At that time, gaming was a lot more about simple, straightforward fun and getting a high score, and it accomplished that goal beautifully. In the meantime, the horror genre enjoyed its golden era with films like The Thing, The Shining, The Exorcist, and Hellraiser. There was little to no sign of horror in gaming on the horizon, and with such amazing offerings in theatres, there didn’t need to be.”

OK first off, there are films listed here ranging from 1973 (The Exorcist) to 1987 (Hellraiser), which is pretty big gap to be generalizing about an era of gaming. “There was little to no sign of horror in gaming on the horizon… ”?!? What the hell is she talking about? In issue #54 we did a feature on retro horror movie-themed video games, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (’83), Halloween (’83), Alien (’84), Jaws (’86) Friday the 13th (’88).

There were also non-movie-based titles out during that time, such as Haunted House for the Atari 2600 (’83), text adventure games such as The Lurking Horror (’87), the home computer horror-comedy title Maniac Mansion (’87), Castlevania (’86) and the Alien rip-off Xenophobe (’87) for the NES, and – damn if I can recall the name – this black and white haunted house adventure game I played on our Mac back in the mid-‘80s, that I loved. Anyhow, the point is that there were plenty of horror games, not just on the horizon, but being played during this period of “little to no sign of horror gaming.” Perhaps she means “survival horror” games, which started with Alone in the Dark in 1992?

Speaking of which, some of the worst contemporary horror films out there are based on video games such as Alone in the Dark, House of the Dead, Resident Evil 2 and so on. Anyhow, the Wired piece gets at some interesting points but overall just doesn’t hold pixelated water.