By: Darien Campo Freelancer
It’s a bittersweet time in my house.
Here we are in the final week of the month; October is almost over. On the other hand, it’s almost Halloween!
The final movie countdown has been getting pretty spooky this week with “ParaNorman” (2012), “The Thing” (1982), “Scream” (1996), “Alien” (1979), “Young Frankenstein” (1974), “Silent Hill” (2006), and “Plan Nine from Outer Space” (1959).
Watching “Silent Hill” is always a unique experience for me.
As a huge fan of the Konami video game series that it’s based on, it’s always fun to see all the monsters and locations from those classics brought to the big screen. But at the same time … it’s just not a very good movie.
I enjoyed it more when I was younger, but every time I watch it now I just can’t help but notice how badly put together it is. The plot is a lazy mess with a whole scene at the end that literally has to stop the movie to explain to the viewer what is happening.
That is really bad writing.
The main problem is that “Silent Hill” only works in its original format – as a video game.
Along with my parade of horror movies, I’ve also been playing my fair share of horror games this month. The film borrows heavily from the first two games, so I’ve been replaying those along side this new viewing, and in an interactive medium, Silent Hill thrives.
Horror films are already a form of interactive art. We aren’t asked to sit idly by and watch a story unfold in front of us during a scary movie.
Instead, scary movies will specifically prey on our fears and try to “attack” us directly. A good horror film will do all it can to make the audience feel as if they’re personally in danger. We jump, we scream, we shiver, and we laugh; horror asks for a certain level of audience participation.
This is why I think that video games are actually the perfect medium for a genre like horror, even better than a theatre screen.
Playing a game like “Amnesia: The Dark Descent” (2010), in which the player’s only defense from the grotesque monster is to run as fast as possible and find a place to hide, is an exhilarating experience that is hard to capture in film. Putting the audience in the shoes of “Alan Wake” (2012) gives us a feeling of personal danger that a movie can rarely replicate.
A movie can show us things we’re afraid of, but a video game can make us fear for our own lives.
If it hasn’t been made obvious already, I love horror. I’m a confirmed ghost story and horror film addict. But I’ve also realized that if the horror genre is going to grow, it might be time to start shifting over into a more interactive medium. There will always be a place for horror in cinema, but a scary game is a whole new experience.
