SPOILER ALERT: There are slight spoilers for Alan Wake in the following article.
Everybody has a fright response. For some that response kicks in as soon as they see a spider. For others, it may require much more to get scared. Nevertheless, everybody gets scared, and the job of horror writers (across all industries, not just video games) is to try and elicit that response. The most recent entry into the horror genre of the video game industry is Alan Wake, the tale of a vacationing writer whose wife goes missing. In his attempt to find her, he realizes that the whole town is under the influence of some maleficent force that is out to get him.
Alan Wake (A. Wake…Awake – nicely played guys) is likely the best horror game of recent years, but it still is not as frightening as the original Silent Hill. Other games in the genre would be better labeled otherwise. For instance, neither Resident Evil 4 or Resident Evil 5 really do anything to frighten us. They are simply action shooters with zombies rather than Iraqis. So, the question that begs asking is this: What makes good horror? As Stephen King’s new article in his updated edition of Danse Macbre asks – what scares us?
If you've ever lusted after an undead nurse, you might have a problem.
Suspense – In horror, suspense is king. People can easily be shocked by those so easily done “jump” moments, but shock is not fright. Once you jump at the dog that pops up unexpectedly, you get over the shock and feel more foolish than scared. The original Silent Hill almost perfected suspense. Suspense is the growing sense that something is horribly wrong. You walk into a room where the walls are covered in blood, eerie music plays, and you expect to see some monstrosity lumbering toward you, but there is nothing. As you search the room, you form an idea in your imagination (such a wonderful thing) of what happened there. Now you are certain that something is going to jump on you as you open the door to the next room. Instead, that room just tells more of the story in your imagination. Perhaps there is a teddy bear lying on the floor, and one of its ears is stained with blood. When the shock finally does come, it scares the crap out of you. Furthermore, it does not leave you like it normally would. 
My cousin, who is a 300-pound Texan, still cannot play the original Resident Evil. You probably already know the scene I’m going to mention, because its the reason you get chills when you try to play it. When that dog jumped through the window of the mansion, the suspense in the build up had been so great, that my cousin literally screamed. Not just a quick bursting yell, but a long, terrified scream. Now that’s the horror.
Immersion – The original Alone in the Dark did this so well, and many games (even outside of the horror genre) have picked it up. Almost all of the story in Alone in the Dark was told via books, journals, and other in game objects. If you played the game without regard for these objects, then you did not get the full experience. A lot of people tell me that in Alan Wake they wait until the end of an episode to read all of the collected manuscripts, because they feel as if the manuscripts spoil the game. My response is that reading them as you find them adds, not only to the sense of immersion, but also to the sense of suspense. In episode two, when I read the manuscript about Alan hearing a chainsaw, I spent the rest of the episode freaking out over every little rumble that I heard, thinking that some Leatherface wannabe was headed in my direction.
One, Two, Alma's coming for you...
Perversion of Innocence – The human psyche has a very defined set of expectations regarding innocence. In our psyche, dogs are (for the most part) innocent. Stephen King may have ruined this for the American psyche with Cujo, but, even today, when I see a dog, my first reaction is “awww, how cute,” not “holy crap, I must run.” We consider kids innocent as well. Perhaps, in our minds, kids are considered the most innocent. When things we consider innocent are perverted and made evil, it freaks us the hell out. What image does each item on the following list conjure up to you? The Omen, The Good Son, It, Pet Semetary, Children of the Corn, The Orphan, The Ring, Cujo. For some reason, game developers have missed this important element of horror. Nevertheless, there are a few games that do it well. The first F.E.A.R. terrified me. It was much faster paced than I normally prefer my horror games to be, but Alma got me every time. The most distinct moment was early on. I approached a ladder to go down. As the character animation set in and he looked back up as he was securely on the ladder, Alma was at the top, staring down. What began to get me more, and further immerse me, were the child-like drawings and chalk writings found throughout the game. I could almost hear a group of kids singing, “One, Two, Freddy’s coming for you…”
Hopelessness – In Fatal Frame, how can I be expected to feel confident when my only form of defense is a camera? Some say that the camera was just another form of a weapon, and that may be true, but having a gun in a game makes me feel empowered. Having a camera…well…doesn’t. So, I went through Fatal Frame on the edge of my seat. Siren was so sparse with weaponry that it required you to watch the enemy’s patterns in order to effectively navigate the game. Silent Hill was not built for combat. All of these games inspire hopelessness in the player. Hopelessness is terrifying. If you were forced to play Russian Roulette by your local psychopath, you would be scared, but somewhat confident if you knew that there was only one bullet in the gun. However, you would be terrified out of your mind if you knew that there was only one empty chamber in the gun. It should be noted that hopelessness only works well when effectively coupled with immersion. If you are completely out of the game while you are playing (perhaps you’re just achievement hunting), then this hopelessness will frustrate you more than scare you. However, if you’re totally into the story, the character, and the environment, then this feeling of hopelessness with terrify you.
Totally not the Resident Evil dog.
There are other elements that help make horror truly frightening, but many of them are related to one of the above categories. For instance, environment could be placed in both suspense and immersion. Even with outdated graphics, the heavy fog and desolate city of Silent Hill still gets me. Our test subject for this article, Alan Wake, gets a little of everything right. Of the above, it probably does suspense the best. Though enemies come in waves, there are long moments of travel where there are no enemies. During those moments, it truly becomes a tough decision to choose to get off the path in search of manuscript pages. It does a good job with immersion as well, though Wake’s narration is a little distracting. I have not felt completely hopeless yet, but watching my batteries in my flashlight dwindle does freak me out a bit. Its weakest moment is its take on the perversion of innocence. To be fair, I am only into the third episode, so I have only been faced with the birds as this form of perversion. However, the perversion of Rose at the end of episode two seems to fit into this category.
As a horror fan (again, across all industries), I hope to see the gaming industry follow more in line with the Alan Wake style horror games, rather than the Resident Evil type. When I approach something labeled as horror, I’m looking to be terrified, not shocked. As Stephen King wrote, when faced with the question of the difference between terror and shock, terror is the thing that makes you think about it when you turn off the movie [game] and lie in bed. It is the thing that goes with you.
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