Horror video games

McFarland & Co.

[2009]

viii, 302 p.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9780786441976

Contents: Foreword : A little light in the darkness / Clive Barker -- Introduction. Gaming after dark / Bernard Perron -- Match made in hell : the inevitable success of the horror genre in video games / Richard Rouse III -- Games of fear : a multi-faceted historical account of the horror genre in video games / Carl Therrien -- Gothic bloodlines in survival horror gaming / Laurie N. Taylor -- Storytelling in survival horror video games / Ewan Kirkland -- Shock, horror : first-person gaming, horror, and the art of ludic manipulation / Dan Pinchbeck -- Haunting backgrounds : transnationality and intermediality in Japanese survival horror video games / Martin Picard -- The survival horror : the extended body genre / Bernard Perron -- Plunged alone into darkness : evolution in the staging of fear in the alone in the dark series / Guillaume Roux-Girard -- Patterns of obscurity : gothic setting and light in Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill 2 / Simon Niedenthal -- Hair-raising entertainment : emotions, sound, and structure In Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame / Inger Ekman and Petri Lankoski -- Complete horror in Fatal Frame / Michael Nitsche -- Gaming's hauntology : dead media in Dead Rising, Siren and Michigan : Report from Hell / Christian McCrea -- The rules of horror : procedural adaptation in Clock Tower, Resident Evil, and Dead Rising / Matthew Weise -- Reanimating H.P. Lovecraft : the ludic paradox of Call of Cthulhu : Dark Corners of the Earth / Tanya Krzywinska.

In this in-depth critical and theoretical analysis of the horror genre in video games, 14 essays explore the cultural underpinnings of horror's allure for gamers and the evolution of "survival" themes. The techniques and story effects of specific games such as Resident Evil, Call of Cthulhu, and Silent Hill are examined individually.

Английский