Videogames Make Better Horror Than Movies?

via /.

Wired author Clive Thompson has up an article stating that, with today's jaded audiences, videogames are more effective horror-conveyances than movies. Thompson argues that the removal of the fourth wall, placing the player directly into the story, overcomes the obstacles movie-makers face when telling a scary story.
"I'll start down a corridor, hear something freaky up ahead, then freeze in panic. Maybe if I stay quiet the monster will go away? S^!t, maybe it's already headed this way, and I should move! But if I move the monster will hear me ... so maybe I should stay quiet ... gaaaaah! Games already seem like dream states. You're wandering around a strange new world, where you simultaneously are and aren't yourself. This is already an inherently uncanny experience. That's why a well-made horror game feels so claustrophobically like being locked inside a really bad -- by which I mean a really good -- nightmare."

Nah, you can't have a truly good horror game that isn't scripted. Unless it's scripted, in which case it may as well be a movie, things that happen around you are pure chance, and hence it's difficult to build climaxes effectively.

On the other hand, games can scare you regardless of whether they're supposed to be horror. It's made me jump a few times on first person shooters when i've been low on health and just thought i've cleared an area, and then i turn a corner and there's someone right in front of me.

i must say very few movies draw me in enough to scare me, but games get me more involved, specially silent hill 2, omg i actually stopped plauying that it scared me so much

with the exception of silent hill i find most games less scary. Mainly because you, to a certain degree, control what happens in a video game and (i don't know if i'm the only person who thinks this ) but i can't take horror games seriously. Especially if i'm playing them with friends around - i just end up laughing. Having said games are very good at making me jump at times, but with suprise not fear..if that makes sense :p

Oh yeah games are more scary. They're up close and personal O_o.

I enjoy both, movies and video games

I enjoy both too, but in a way videogames function as an extension to horrormovies. You follow a directed story, but you interact with it, choosing whether to go down that corridor or not. I think at least it can be scary in a whole different way.

Uhm!, I've never thought about it that much but it's true
I enjoy horror movies too, you just need to be identified with the character or imagine you're on a similar situation... whoa that's scary

You can escape out of situations in games while you can't with movies. There are definately some creepy games out there, but movies are by far scarier.

I enjoy a quality horror film and games like resident evil etc, but when a movie or game exists just to show extreme violence with no real purpose whatsoever ala manhunt, I really don't see the point.

Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with banning it, I just have no interest in playing it.

I played the first for a short while and really didn't enjoy it at all, it was just pointless overdone violence IMO.
This coming from someone who loves running down people in GTA while laughing my ass off.

I love movies like the shining, never really liked saw etc though.

I haven't been scared by a movie since I was a child. So Clock Tower for the SFC surprised me by actually freaking me out, and it still does, at that. I've never owned a Sony console, so I can't speak for Silent Hill and stuff, but yeah, horror games are scarier.

But it isnt all about being scary, its about the horror.I personally think that The Darkness for ps3 and 360 could have been a very good horror movie, but it is certainly a better horror game! Silent hill again... What was more horrific, the game or the movie? Same goes for resident evil!

The Suffering games creeped me out more than any horror movie recently, but I think on the whole, I prefer horror movies to scare me in general.

It's hard to feel scared when you're packing a mass arsenal of weapons or you can just look up the answer to a problem in GameFAQs. Like someone else said, while watching a movie, you have no control except to turn it off, so it's generally scarier.

As a horror movie fantatic, I am more entertained by movies, and the fear factor is limited. With games like Resident Evil, Condemned, and others, I actually scream outloud, and can get stressed out. Sometimes if I am trading the controller back and forth, I am releived that I dont have to play that "scary" part of the game.

And I may just be a wuss, but no movie has ever made my stomach drop like when you get your F***IN head Sawed off by a Chainsaw lady in Res Evil 5. :eek:

Well, i dont know whats wrong with me these days. Movies just aint working on me :S I really enjoy them but its impossible to get scared, but with games... i have a problem with playing the game "condemned: criminal origin" because i get too scared... so i just play it in small doses ;=) So yes i think games deliver horror much better, as said before its personally. I always say that games are like interactive movies.