Building the Nightmare

Having been provoked by Extra Credits and Zero Punctuation, I felt the need to add my thoughts and definitions of the horror genre. Let me begin as a college professor might by explaining my credentials in the field. I am a devoted fan of the horror genre, having been raised on movies such as Alien, Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, and a myriad of John Carpenter's best (along with Disney movies and The Wizard of Oz...). My first adventure into the survival-horror genre in video games was Resident Evil 2 on the N64 which scared me to the point of quitting the game - 10 minutes from the end. Years later, I returned to the old cartridge to win the day, but realizing how close I had been just pulled me in. Since then, I've sought out as many horror games as I can find.

Now then, let's take a look at Dictionary.com's definition of the word horror.

"–noun 1. an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear"

Luckily for me, this matches up well with my breakdown of horror (which also agrees similarly with Yahtzee's three types of horror. There are three clear pieces to the horror equation: Thrills (shocking), Suspense (a shuddering fear), and Gore (revolting).

Thrills

"The kind where you're in a dark room and a guy in a spooky mask jumps out of the cupboard going 'Abloogy woogy woo.'" - Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

Excellently put, thrills are the tension spikes when something jumps out at you. This is meant to make you jump, something that the Resident Evil series makes heavy use of and was overdone in Dead Space (by the end of the game, you knew when to expect something to jump out). Actually, that parenthetical hits on the core of a thrill: Thrills are scary because they are unexpected. This sort of scare revolves around catching you unawares. It's all about that spike in tension and making you jump. However, each successive thrill is less effective - unless it's a one-two punch as seen in F.E.A.R. on that ladder in the sewers...

When your character gets on a ladder, he grabs the ladder and climbs down onto it, looking down to make sure his footing is good, then looks up, then back down, then up. Finally, you can go about your business on the ladder (don't get me wrong, this all happens very quickly). On this on ladder - on my second play through, mind you - I was fully prepared for this thrill. It scared the crap out of me the first time around, so when I got to that point again, I was pretty sure that it was the ladder. So I get on the ladder, look down, brace myself, look up - nothing. I quickly decide that I must have the wrong ladder as I look back down, then I look back up and HOLY CRAP SHE'S RIGHT THERE!!! I slide down the ladder, berating myself for getting tricked, then turn to my left and HOLY CRAP THERE'S PAXTON FETTEL! Two rounds later and I realize that they got me twice with the same thrill.

The reason it worked so well was that it's all so unexpected - you just saw that there was nothing there and since when do two thrills happen in such quick succession? You don't expect anything of that sort. Then they never used that trick again. Not even in F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin. They knew that it wouldn't stand out a second time around. F.E.A.R. does also use some interesting tactics of making you feel like you're safe when you're not, so that when that phantom floating toward you that you're sure is just going to vanish two inches from your face suddenly does damage to you, you jump.

Suspense

"The kind where the guy in the mask isn't in the cupboard but standing right behind you, and you just know that he's going to go 'Abloogy woogy woo' at some point and he doesn't so you get and you're getting more and more tense but you don't want to turn around..." -Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

Again, quite well said. We hit again on this notion of tension. Suspense is what builds that tension level up and up, making you nervous and antsy and wary of every corner. This is the most powerful form of horror since it builds so well upon itself. It can end in a thrill or just stop building - but your tension level doesn't drop because nothing has jumped out yet and you're still expecting something to happen. This is where it gets tricky, because suspense ending in a thrill crescendo can end up laughable.

For example, I once watched The Messengers at a friend's house with a group of people. Having seen my fair share of proper horror, I could see what this movie was trying to accomplish as the lead female slowly climbed the creaking stairs, staring at the dusty old window from where a mysterious sound was coming from. At the exact moment of the thrill, I yelled out, "Bird!"

Sure enough, a raven flew against the window, making the lead character jump. Suspense that tells you what to expect isn't suspense at all - it's an advertisement. As I mentioned previously, a thrill is all about the unexpected. Even if suspense is building to that thrill, you should never know when the thrill will take place.

Silent Hill and its sequel are jewels of suspense. The games are literally stressful to play, making you paranoid to the point where you just have to stop playing to collect yourself. They don't use music or sounds to cue you in on thrills - those just happen when the game so pleases. In Silent Hill 2, there's a specific room where the music suddenly grows to a fast paced rate - the type that makes you go I'M GONNA DIE BY SOMETHING HORRIBLE!!!! RUUUUUUN!!!!

I still don't think there's anything actually in that room. However, I still haven't gone back to check. I was expecting it since I'd started the game once before, but I still ran away and never looked back. This scare was so effective due to its unusual construction - the thrill comes first with the sudden and noticeable change in music, then the music holds that suspense and builds it as you run through the small room. Once on the other side of the room, you can't help but wonder if you're safe.

Gore

"The guy in the spooky mask goes 'Abloogy woogy woo' while standing on the far side of a brightly lit room before walking slowly over to you plucking a violin and then slapping you in the face with a T-bone steak." -Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

Okay, so that isn't exactly what gore encompasses (except the T-bone steak part), but it's about how I see it. Gore is the "cheap" scare because it makes people uneasy. People don't like needles, so you show them someone getting poked in the eye with a needle to make them cringe. That's pretty much what I think of gore.

Gore can be used in horror, but it's use is rather limited. Showing us blood on the movie screen after the "pretty girl that went to go surprise Mark wearing only an over sized t-shirt" gets stabbed in the chest (and it's always her chest) as she runs out into the night away from her more gruesomely murdered boyfriend is to be expected. However, that's not something to build a movie around (I'm looking at you, America).

American "horror" seems to think that gore is all that matters. Yes, violence is something we're rather open about here in the states, but that doesn't make a movie about a guy sawing off his own arm to escape a madman good. It doesn't even make it scary. It makes it something to make people go... well, ew.

Gore is simply a spice to the horror genre. Entering a room covered in blood with a dismembered corpse hanging from the ceiling in The Thing (the video game, I mean) is rather creepy, but it doesn't really increase the tension level. What does increase the tension level of that scene is that your engineer follower starts freaking out and won't move until you give him some items to make him feel up to entering the massacre. However, that is suspense, not gore.

Gore is blood and guts, corpses and ghouls. It is the uneasy stuff that serves to hold the tension level where it is or lay the groundwork for suspense. Perhaps used in conjunction with other mechanics, you can produce thrills or suspense with gore, but that's not gore on its own anymore.

Recovery
It is important that the audience has some recovery time between scares, otherwise they will become desensitized to our scare tactics (it's also important to add variety to our scares for that reason). The tension level needs to drop at some point. It's important to make an emotional roller coaster for our audience (this is why UP was so sad at the start - because it was offset with so much happy).

All Together Now
So now that I've broken horror down into three main elements, let's look at an example of how it all fits together by analyzing the opening scene from Dead Space.

After having crashed on the USG Ishimura, engineer Isaac and his team consisting of some military escort sent in to repair the injured frigate have left the hanger, entering a processing chamber for new crew to be scanned. The place is deserted, so they send Isaac ahead to check out a computer terminal behind the glass. As he opens the door to this half of the room, Isaac finds blood spilled across the floor and walls, even some on the ceiling. Something has happened here.

[Here, gore is used as a gateway to suspense. Why is there blood all over? What happened here? Suddenly, you have questions without answers. The tension level is rising.]

Isaac reaches the terminal, which reports the USG Ishimura is pretty much dead in the water, but not beyond repair. Suddenly, the lights go out, replaced by a single rotating yellow light accompanied by alarms and the declaration of quarantine. Isaac's team claims he must have tripped something on the terminal.

[The sudden change is a quick drop into a suspenseful situation. Why is the quarantine suddenly going off? Why did the lights have to shut off? Something bad is about to happen - this feeling is a true sign of suspense. That tension level is building fast.]

As a dark figure drops from the ceiling behind an unsuspecting team member, Isaac can only watch in terror as it creeps up behind his friend and attacks. The team calls out that they're not alone and open fire, too late to save the unsuspecting victim.

[We see here a slight thrill and accelerated suspense. Something bad is happening now and there's nothing you can do to stop it. We also have a bit of gore due to our friend getting killed. Tension is high and building still.]

There's a crash to Isaac's right, and he can see a monster like the one that just killed his friend making its way toward him as the team calls out to the unarmed engineer, "There's one of them in there with Isaac! Run Isaac! Get out of there!"

[This is where the thrill really picks up. We are now being chased by something that just took out a marine, and we're just an unarmed engineer. We have to run, but that means running away from our friends too. We are cut off and alone. And that thing is right behind us! Tension has spiked toward critical mass.]

So Isaac flees, narrowly escaping a swipe from the creature's arm blades and rushing through another door into a winding corridor. Vents are bursting open around him as more monsters arrive to kill their prey. Isaac sees an elevator ahead, rushing to it and frantically pressing the call button.

[Now we're talking about suspense and thrills! They are interwoven here with thrills pulsing and the suspense setting the bar for the tension level. As we come to the elevator and the door takes a moment to open, we can't help but feel our pulse quicken as the tension level suddenly grows. That thing was right behind us! We don't have time to wait for the door to open!]

Finally the elevator dings as its doors slide open. Isaac dives inside, pressing whatever button gets him the hell out of here. As the doors slide closed again, we see the shadows of monsters from where we came.

[Now that the scare is over, we can begin our recovery, right?]

As Isaac takes a breath, the monster that chased him from the terminal stabs its blades between the elevators doors, pulling them open halfway.

[Thrill! The false sense of security is meant to put us off our guard - much like the final scare in a horror movie.]

The doors shutter as the creature's muscles begin to spasm. It pokes its head into the elevator, hissing and growling and howling all at once, glaring at Isaac. The doors slam shut, cutting off the monsters arms and head, which now roll around the elevator floor.

[And finally, we end our section of horror with gore, leaving the player unsettled. Are they really as safe as they think?]

This final question is actually a divergence in horror movies. Some choose to award the audience with a feeling equivalent to "you're safe now." (Alien does this - you never see the full monster until the end.) Meanwhile, others choose for a feeling similar to the end of our scene here - that of insecurity. Is the threat really gone? Only time will tell...