5.18.2008
5.13.2008
If it ain't physical it ain't scary
Psychic powers is probably one of the most re-ocurring elements of all gaming and film, that is if you live in Japan. We got characters like Bison (Street Fighter) and Athena Asamiya (King of Fighters) using psychic powers in fighting games, we've got one of the most recognizable cyberpunk anime movie adaptions in the west Akira featuring psychic powers prominently throughout the movie, there are body horror live action movies like Tetsuo that does the same and hell we've even got a US made Japanese horror-styled game called FEAR that makes it a vital plot element.
So anywar I don't really think the whole psychic thing even belongs in the whole sci-fi genre, I mean the whole idea is to get away from stupid folklore like that right? Putting psychers into sci-fi is like putting werewolves in a world war two documentary, so let's just skip the whole genre and fast forward to the part about horror.
In the west I guess we've got uh the Screamers movies and I guess Freddy Krueger is a borderline effort, and that's about it. Especially when it comes to horror we do body horror instead. Why? Because mind ghosts aren't fucking scary. I'm not exactly afraid of having a psycher will blow my head up in a fit of rage because even if we were to bend the rules of reality quite a bit it still won't fucking happen. Aliens are more likely to happen.
FEAR made quite a good example, all the ghosts featured in the game are pretty much mind distortions see? They cannot hurt you so why should be afraid of them? Because they provide an unsettling mood and creepy music? Please, I've had scarier scenarios than that daydreaming!
I am writing this because I just had one of those cultural clash episodes watching the new demo of Siren on the PS3 not to mention Asian import horror flicks were shit hot a while back and I really like steampunk, especially in anime. So anyway, the game is Siren and mere seconds into the game the first guy gets slaughtered by some random zombie (all good) then comes back from the dead almost instantly (kinda ruined the mood but sure) and goes to work by digging into the ground (uh...) and has this eerie voice because he was possessed by an evil ghost...
Okay hold it right there! This is exactly what I am talking about. This isn't the meaty body horror that I am into, this is some psychic thing involved there I just know it. It's some fucking random "ghost" taking over a corpse and walking around. For the record, ghosts or demons (or whatever you'd call them) aren't scary either because it's simply not plausible for them to exist. They can work for action games like Onimusha because they can look cool, or funny as hell like in Mario or Sonic Adventure 2 (certain boss) but seriously, ghosts have about the same impact in the horror genre as the fucking easter bunny. Not only do they not exist, make no sense from any scientific perspective (at all) but they need to be fucking designed by HR Giger before they even start looking somewhat intimidating.
So why "body horror" and what is it you may ask? Well it can be anything from a viral outbreak causing people to turn into ultra violent zombies (like in 28 Days Later), an alien parasite that takes over the bodies of humans to do their bidding (like in the classic Body Snatcher movies) or simply having some killer robot from the future disguising itself as a human (kinda like Terminator) in order to assassinate someone. Basically ANYTHING that's at the very least semi-realistic from a fucking modern world perspektive and have something to do about what it means to be "an organic being" as opposed to being a fucking semi transparent CGI. Make more movies like that and less movies about random symbols appearing on TV screens (Ringu), psychic powered robots (Cyber City) or unstoppable super powered ghosts with no known form of weakness for no reason (Grudge).
Eastern Asia needs to get over their fucking fascination for the supernatural, ghosts and psychics in particular, start living in the real world and produce more quality horror and sci-fi that doesn't build around fucking impossible premises. Lay off the whole psychic power thing, fuck ghosts, fuck spirits, fuck demons and fuck everyone who still thinks being photographed will make you lose your soul. We live in an extremely developed world where science rules the day, I simply cannot relate to mysticism anymore.
So anywar I don't really think the whole psychic thing even belongs in the whole sci-fi genre, I mean the whole idea is to get away from stupid folklore like that right? Putting psychers into sci-fi is like putting werewolves in a world war two documentary, so let's just skip the whole genre and fast forward to the part about horror.
In the west I guess we've got uh the Screamers movies and I guess Freddy Krueger is a borderline effort, and that's about it. Especially when it comes to horror we do body horror instead. Why? Because mind ghosts aren't fucking scary. I'm not exactly afraid of having a psycher will blow my head up in a fit of rage because even if we were to bend the rules of reality quite a bit it still won't fucking happen. Aliens are more likely to happen.
FEAR made quite a good example, all the ghosts featured in the game are pretty much mind distortions see? They cannot hurt you so why should be afraid of them? Because they provide an unsettling mood and creepy music? Please, I've had scarier scenarios than that daydreaming!
I am writing this because I just had one of those cultural clash episodes watching the new demo of Siren on the PS3 not to mention Asian import horror flicks were shit hot a while back and I really like steampunk, especially in anime. So anyway, the game is Siren and mere seconds into the game the first guy gets slaughtered by some random zombie (all good) then comes back from the dead almost instantly (kinda ruined the mood but sure) and goes to work by digging into the ground (uh...) and has this eerie voice because he was possessed by an evil ghost...
Okay hold it right there! This is exactly what I am talking about. This isn't the meaty body horror that I am into, this is some psychic thing involved there I just know it. It's some fucking random "ghost" taking over a corpse and walking around. For the record, ghosts or demons (or whatever you'd call them) aren't scary either because it's simply not plausible for them to exist. They can work for action games like Onimusha because they can look cool, or funny as hell like in Mario or Sonic Adventure 2 (certain boss) but seriously, ghosts have about the same impact in the horror genre as the fucking easter bunny. Not only do they not exist, make no sense from any scientific perspective (at all) but they need to be fucking designed by HR Giger before they even start looking somewhat intimidating.
So why "body horror" and what is it you may ask? Well it can be anything from a viral outbreak causing people to turn into ultra violent zombies (like in 28 Days Later), an alien parasite that takes over the bodies of humans to do their bidding (like in the classic Body Snatcher movies) or simply having some killer robot from the future disguising itself as a human (kinda like Terminator) in order to assassinate someone. Basically ANYTHING that's at the very least semi-realistic from a fucking modern world perspektive and have something to do about what it means to be "an organic being" as opposed to being a fucking semi transparent CGI. Make more movies like that and less movies about random symbols appearing on TV screens (Ringu), psychic powered robots (Cyber City) or unstoppable super powered ghosts with no known form of weakness for no reason (Grudge).
Eastern Asia needs to get over their fucking fascination for the supernatural, ghosts and psychics in particular, start living in the real world and produce more quality horror and sci-fi that doesn't build around fucking impossible premises. Lay off the whole psychic power thing, fuck ghosts, fuck spirits, fuck demons and fuck everyone who still thinks being photographed will make you lose your soul. We live in an extremely developed world where science rules the day, I simply cannot relate to mysticism anymore.
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