Prismatic Puzzles of Panic and Peril: A Pursuit of Horror History, Ergodic Fictional Fear, and the Petrifying Postmodern Peak

Abstract

For as long as humans have known death, horror has existed as a condition of fear in fact and an outlet for fear in fantasy. Creatively, horror elements are ancient, moving into modernity through medieval literature and the conception of the Gothic. Adding visuals to horror’s visceral violence, vulgarity, and vulnerability, film endows scary stories with sight and sound. The newest approach to creative horror, i.e., video games, relies on a storytelling collaboration between man and medium, one that is equal parts purposeful interplay and immersive narrative. In a postmodern world, the heart of horror video games pounds and stops in interactive harmony with its players. From primitive to postmodern, an analysis of horror history and humanity’s relationship with (fictional) fear offers insight into the often disregarded genre’s importance in storytelling. Observing creative horror as an examination of existence, enigmas, evil, and ethics, a transmedial horror paradigm is described and applied to Capcom’s Resident Evil (1996–) multimedia franchise in order to demonstrate video games as valid—and superior—creative horror stories. From there, as video games are established as tools for narrative construction, horror game mechanics are shown to aid game-stories in their storytelling methods. A brief outline of survival horror gameplay, alongside player (dis)empowerment, displays a standard interactive formula that works with the game-story to produce the most intense creative horror experience. Again, the Resident Evil game series is used to exhibit the multifaceted matters of horror video games. Attempting to elevate video games in art and academia, the Resident Evil games, and survival horror, are discussed as the current postmodern peak, utilizing prominent postmodern concepts and theorists like Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jacques Derrida. Creative horror’s most efficient productions of panic-inducing and perilous prisms rest on the right angle, a postmodern perspective of the game-gamer dynamic.