October Magazine

Psychological
HORROR
These type of movies and games
tend to freak you out mentally, they
play on your fears and often have
a supernatural element to the story.
Films such as The Exorcist, The
Shinning, The Blair Witch Project
and Insidious fall into this category.
They play on your mind and often
will linger in your mind long after
you’ve finished watching. Some
films like The Exorcist had profound
affects on people using the theme
of possession by evil combined with
a regular suburban setting that it still
ranks as one of the scariest movies
of all time. Games include:
Silent Hill 2
Dead Space
F.E.A.R and Alan Wake
These are the sort of games you
might not want to play alone at
night, with the lights off after everyone
has gone to bed…
Sci-Fi
Horror
This is one of my personal favourites.
Sci-Fi Horror tends to deal with
aliens, paranormal and can include
science experiments that have gone
wrong - consider The Fly for example.
Some of the best movies in this
genre include Alien, 28 Days Later,
I Am Legend and many others. You
might notice that some films cross
genres. For example Alien is Science
Fiction and Body Horror due
to the content and setting. Games
in this genre include..
System Shock 2
Dead Space
Doom
Note - I can remember playing the
first Doom game late at night, headphones
on, lights off and the family
in bed. I can honestly say it actually
made me jump a few times and
even with those pixelated graphics
it managed to be creepy enough to
get me to turn the lights back on…
Survival
Horror
In this genre the character tends
to be more vulnerable, less armed
then say in Doom, and relies on
cunning and puzzle solving to survive
as against violence and brute
force. Most of us would relate the
term to games such as Resident
Evil but movies too, can be classified
as Survival Horror. Dawn of
the Dead, The Thing and The Mist
come to mind as well as classics
like A Nightmare on Elm Street and
30 Days of Night. In all these the
character/s do their best to survive
a period of time or an enemy that
is intent on hurting them down and
killing them. Games include :
Resident Evil
Parasite Eve
Blue Stinger and Silent Hill
These games have a tendency to
make you jump with sudden noises
or creepy visuals that can play on
your mind like Psychological Horror
games do.
There are many more sub genres
that come under the horror theme,
including Ghost Stories, Monsters,
Japanese Horror and the list goes
on. We’d love to hear about your favourite
genre of horror so send in
your picks to feedback@gametraders.com.au
and we’ll print them in
our next issue.