Theatre of Horrors: Halloween Special

Derelict mansions, haunted graveyards, and ancient sigils... The moon at its autumnal tide as echoes of the underworld enthral and bewitch, luring us into the realms of the sacred as we herald the darkness of winter. THIS IS HALLOWEEN, and we're hunkering down for scary season at Fetch Quest Journeys by paying tribute to some of the most bone-chilling escapades in videogame history!

So whether you're celebrating with campy classics or lighting up jack o' lanterns while indulging in tooth-rot at an ad hoc costume party, take a moment to crack out the console and strap yourself in for the blood-curdling terror of... THEATRE OF HORRORS [cue thunder]

Into the Woods. Photo credit: Bloober Team (Presskit)

Into the Depths: Bioshock

"It's a visceral thing, this fear of the ocean," a reader tells me one day. The infinite abyss of uncharted waters and the creatures who inhabit them - more obscure than our knowledge of the moon - have permeated our subconscious for millennia, and it is this very fear which sets the opening notes as we plummet into the depths before a panoramic sweep of Rapture jolts us to attention.

The hidden metropolis - once a testament to the achievements of engineering and enterprise - serves as ample stage for dystopian parables where the "hero" must shed their moral reckoning and become the antithesis of themselves to enact salvation, invoking the mantra "We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us." While the trepidation of chimera mutants running amok in the periphery is panic-inducing, the true horror lies in the realization that given full-bodied reign the scope of humanity's perversity is inexhaustible.

Descent into Rapture. Photo credit: FetchQuester

Alternate Realities: Control and the Alan Wake Universe

If the nature of horror is to not only unveil the unfamiliar but take the familiar and turn it on its head, Control and Alan Wake execute this with "just the right kind of insane," raising the question of identity and how many identities comprise our "core" sense of self as we become irrevocably changed with each shift between worlds. 

Mixing gameplay with cinematics of vocalising corpses and partly sentient, partly possessed objects that distort the boundaries between reality and illusion, Remedy Games take a Lynchian surrealist approach: A lake in the wilderness, a shapeshifting house bridging the astral plane, and the analogue paraphernalia serving as conduits to another space and time transform the ordinary into the awful and sublime, indicative of the revelation that we are one dimension away from an alternate universe as we confront our own predilections and the supernatural forces manipulating them. 

Containment. Photo credit: FetchQuester

Haunted Mansion: Resident Evil Village

The lure of the unknown is both a detriment and an advantage to our species, and the anomaly of temptation within freedom has been explored by existentialists for eons: To draw oneself ever closer to the cliff edge, to embrace the fatal vertigo that ensues as our sense of intrigue transports us to forbidden places. 

Curiosity as a thematic device - as well as the much-coveted revenge tale - drive the sequences in Resident Evil Village's Castle Dimitrescu, a feverish playground of labyrinthian halls and passageways that exemplify the opulent and grotesque. Its Gothic matriarch - a self-described "tempest of destruction" - is equally enticing, calling on that primal part of us which yearns to be captured as we succumb to our inner desires.

Castle Dimitrescu. Photo credit: FetchQuester

Lost in Space: Observation

"Where we are... it's not one place. It's all of them compressed..."

Wrestling with two existential crises - the question of one's own consciousness and the collective consciousness that embodies our obsession with how our species will be remembered - is at its most poignant when we're far from home and among the stars. The isolation that grips us, the sense of being forsaken in space as we grapple with the question of what it means to exist as a conscious being while our destinies are being curated by a higher power sets an ominous stage for our protagonist as told from the perspective of a deeply integrated AI - and the irony isn't lost on us.

That much of this unravels beneath the glare of the Observation's modules vs. the dimly-lit corridors that typically comprise the mise-en-scene for these moments of suspense is a masterclass of ingenuity in cinematic artistry, as we are inexplicably drawn to something bigger - and greater - than the sum of our parts by the end.

Worlds unknown. Photo credit: FetchQuester

A Carnival of Terrors: The Park

As if life-size carnivorous mannequins didn't scar those of us who frequented theme parks and concession stands for life, The Park brews a lethal cocktail of nerve-jarring jump scares with an increasingly disturbing descent into psychosis. Folklore mingles with urban legend to disorient the player in an escalating "lost in the woods" scenario, resulting in uncanny valley levels of discomfort by taking symbols of safety from childhood and subverting them to become the "monsters in the closet" they are designed to protect us from. 

Ultimately, the nemesis is the trauma and heartache which drive us to committing unthinkable acts as the environment toys with our perception of reality - a complex take on the toll of motherhood and grief, particularly when endured in the hands of institutional care where, to quote our anti-hero, "Help is agony."

The Boogeyman. Photo credit: FetchQuester

Wicked and Whimsical: Little Nightmares

Reimagining the world from the perspective of 8-inch prey can have an unnerving effect on the senses: Table legs tower into the heavens, footfalls throb with resounding thunder, and the doll on the dresser emits a sinister glow are you crawl out the stench of croaking drainpipes. Created in a similar vein to the stealth classic Inside, Little Nightmares forgoes monochromatic tones for a fairyland-turned-hellscape which is saturated with shade and colour, plagued by gluttonous entities whose acts of barbarianism leave us reeling after a stomach-churning twist in the final showdown.

"Six". Photo credit: Tarsier Studios (Presskit)

Love and War in the End Times: The Last of Us

"I struggled for a long time with surviving... And no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for."

Desolation and despair imbue the Cormac McCarthy influenced narrative, a harrowing introspection of how the soul adapts to the terrors of its environment as society fails and natural order is thrown into chaos. What is most gripping isn't the devastation of the pandemic itself, but how it serves as a catalyst for those awaiting the chance to justify their convictions by dehumanizing the "other" in the name of the "greater good" - reflective of the tribalism that drives so many post-apocalyptic stories. 

As one reader notes, the preoccupation with saving the world can become so consuming that one loses their humanity in the process, while another will sacrifice the world to save the person they love the most - an incredibly human thing to do.

Joel. Photo credit: FetchQuester

Notable Mentions: Dead Space and Blair Witch

Whether wrestling with demons from the past in Blair Witch (which lovingly pays homage to the "found footage" blockbuster of the 90s) or wrangling Franken-aliens of the USG Ishimura in Dead Space, the horror genre is an effective rumination on the multitudinous ways we defy our primal heckler, fear. 

“There’s a cathartic process that happens when you play horror games," reflects Jade Jacson, Senior Game Designer at The Chinese Room. "You go through a huge spectrum of emotions: You’re afraid, stressed, relived, disgusted, filled with dread, sometimes even amused or brought to tears. But in games, you can experience all of them in a safe environment and can allow yourself to be vulnerable and let the fear creep in." 

On board the USG Ishimura. Photo credit: Motive Studio (Presskit)

And perhaps that is why we give chase to the mysterious and elusive with such fervour: It resonates the compulsion to disclose our deepest, darkest truths, prying open the fissures of our psyche and awakening a journey that allows us to question our relationship with mortality and the meaningfulness of time itself - and have a hell of a thrill in the meantime.

From all of us at Fetch Quest Journeys, Happy Halloween!

- Lucy A.

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Sources: 

Bioshock (2K Boston/2K Australia), Blair Witch (Bloober Team/Lionsgate Games), Control (Remedy Entertainment/505 Games), Dead Space (Motive Studio/Electronic Arts), The Last of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment), Observation (No Code/Devolver Digital), The Park (Funcom), Resident Evil Village (Capcom)