Creating Spooky Atmosphere: Video Games Pt. 3

First off, what do you all think of the new theme? I am liking it a lot better.

Secondly, you get 2 posts this week! This one, and another shorter one on some writing updates this Friday.  I also have some suggestions, but I may put those in a 3rd post sometime next week (I have 2 podcasts and a documentary that are really great, and horror lovers will love).

OKAY.  Now lets talk atmosphere.

Last time, we went through the intro of Resident Evil 7.  Now I want to talk a little about a section later in the game.

At one point in the game, you have to retrieve an arm in order to make a serum.  That's all I'm going to say about that.  I don't want to spoil more than I have to.

What makes this part of the game so great, and so scary, is that it not only creates great atmosphere but it draws on one of any horror lovers favorite tropes: Scary kid stuff!

So to retrieve the arm, you have to go through the terrifying house that takes up 2/3rds of the game, and specifically through a child's room until you get to a secret room that holds the arm you need.

We've already established that the house is scary because its familiar.  It isn't run down to the point that you can no longer recognize it as a home (and if you played the game, you know that a family has been living there until very recently.  Until you got there to be exact.  Until you killed them to be more exact). But kids rooms are an entirely different kind of terrifying.

Not only does it remind us of our childhoods, but we don't like to think of bad things happening to kids, and we don't like to think of kids being bad. It is something of an uncanny valley type of situation, and we don't like it. But from a creating horror POV, we LOVE it.


You spend a lot of time in this room:

Don't forget the yellow ball.

This room sets the tone.  It's dark, full of toys, it's a part of the house you haven't been in yet, you don't know what is lurking around the corner.  At this point in the game you've recently finished a boss fight, but also in this game you can't expect a break between baddies.  

There isn't anything spectacular in this room, but even so you are allowed to pick up and examine items. 

One of the first things you encounter is a teddy bear.

Side note: Does anybody remember Teddy Ruxpin? Am I the only one who thought he was terrifying?

You can pick up the bear, and rotate it, and look at it, but it doesn't do anything.  It doesn't have any clues attached to it, you can't cut it open and retrieve a key from inside.  Nothing. But you WANT it to do something.  To blink, to talk, anything.  But it doesn't.

OH WAIT!

Once you put it down, this happens.  Black goo comes out of its mouth and down its whole body.  

It doesn't turn into a zombie, it still doesn't talk or blink.  But it has now gone from the normal teddy bear it was, to this.  It has lost its innocence.  Which is at the root of the trope that we all love.  Scary kids are scary because they aren't innocent anymore.  

Another thing that you can manipulate is a doll house.

This actually does hold a clue, and I am sure I was not the only one who was relieved that it did not in fact hold any dolls.

Dolls are scary in a similar way that children are, they represent innocence so when they are portrayed as anything other than innocent, it throws us off.  It makes us uncomfortable.  They also play into uncanny valley, looking just enough like real people to feel a little off.

Eventually you get here.  Does something look familiar? The yellow ball, right?  Yep.  That yellow ball has been rolling and bouncing, following you, leading you through this section.  You of course don't see who is kicking it or throwing it.  But the ball is always there.

Finally, after a lot of perceived scary things (where you feel scared but nothing has actually happened to you), you get to the hidden room and retrieve the arm.  Shortly after that the game gets back to its shoot-em-up kind of horror, but there is one more atmospheric trick up its sleeve. 

Once you retrieve the arm, and turn around.

"No. No. Nope. No. No." - Me, playing this part of this game.

Those are little girl legs.  Scary little girl legs. 

Have I mentioned that the antagonist in this game is a little girl? 

Well it is.  And that's her.

And you're in this cramped little room, and she's outside of it.

Another boss fight?

No.  She runs away.  And aside from some familiar bad guys (that are the shoot and you kill them kind), nothing happens to you.  

But this part.  The part where you turn around and she is there is one of THE scariest parts in this whole game.  And to me....one of the last scary parts. 

So in today's scary writing clip I decided to share one that had kids in it.  This one is by Stephen King (I know...I know...some people love him, some people hate him, but you can't talk horror without talking Stephen King).

This paragraph is from 'Salem's Lot'

" "It's watchin' us" Ralphie whispered. "Listen, I'm not gonna-" "No, Danny. Really. Can't you feel it?" Danny stopped. And in the way of children, he did feel something and knew they were no longer alone. A great hush had fallen over the woods; but it was a malefic hush. Shadows, urged by the wind, twisted languorously around them."

There are two parts of this passage that I really love.

"And in the way of children...." I love that line because it goes back to children "knowing" that there is something in their closet or under their bed.  So often we as adults dismiss this, but what if it were true?

I also like the hush description.  Many writers, (myself included) tend to add noise when something is lurking or has shown up. That makes the most logical sense right?

But fear isn't logical.  And if the point is to make the person experiencing the terror to feel scared, you go with the less logical reason.

So in your writing, go against logical and embrace the hush.

Next time, we talk Southern Gothic.

Memento Mori.
&;