Origins of Fear

After realising that our group had come up with a presentation topic that did not meet the brief's criteria, we decided to pick a new one. We decided a good topic could be that of horror games and how they manage to make us scared. We would look at horror games from the east and west and see how much their culture effects their horror games and where this fear comes from.
We each walked away with a research topic. Jack was to look at the visuals, Juliette the narrative, Liam the gameplay and me, the Origins of Fear i.e. psychology, folk tales and general cultural sources of horror.
Wanting to launch myself into the research as quickly as possible and chose to look into a subject I enjoy and partially know, Psychology.

The first thing I found was that fear is "classically conditioned". They develop fear through association. An experiment performed in 1920 known as the "Little Albert Experiment" (Watson and Rayner) in which a very young child was shown a variety of different "stimuli", including a white rat, to which the child initially showed no emotional response. The child was then shown the white rat again while one of the experimenters banged a metal pipe. This was done on a regular basis until the child naturally associated the rat with the loud noise and became scared of the rat. This does, however, mean that there are some base fears which come instinctually. 
Fears can also be picked up by observing others show fear as shown in the study, "Learning fears by observing others: the neural systems of social fear transmission" (Olsson, Nearing and Phelps). 


I then decided it might be a good idea to look at the most common nightmares. I tried to find something on common nightmares from different cultures to see if there were any differences. Apparently this is uncovered ground (psychologists take note). I found that all of the top 10 nightmares (according to this site: http://urbantitan.com/10-most-common-nightmares-and-their-meanings/) can be found in horror games, films and stories, if not directly then by the supposed root source of the dream:

1. Lost or Trapped
2. Missed a boat or plane (feeling of frustration)
3. Being Chased
4. Failing a test (The feeling that you are being tested on something you shouldn't be involved in e.g. a demon infested town)
5. Nudity in public (fear of vulnerability)
6. Ill or Dying (The loss of a part of yourself (most commonly))
7. Car troubles (just about every 1990's horror film)
8. Bad or Missing teeth (embarassment or Loss of Power)
9. Falling or sinking (feeling overwhelmed)
10. Faulty Machinery (losing touch with reality) 

 All of these dreams or their meanings are crucial elements of the horror genre (although I will get to making specific connections later). 


Feeling I had covered enough psychology, I decided to move onto folklore. The first thing I looked at were Japanese folk creatures (http://listverse.com/2010/01/20/10-bizarre-creatures-from-japanese-folklore/), in the hopes that some would share similarities with modern monsters. Most of the Japanese monsters are weird rather than scary, such as the Makura Gaeshi, a spirit who's sole purpose in life is to move pillows while people sleep. I did, however, find a few that connect a bit more to modern horror. The Konak Jiji is a creature that disguises itself as a child and then cries in the woods. When someone finds the apparent child and pick it up to comfort it, they find the creature paralyses them and quickly increases it's weight until it crushes it's prey. This creature uses the image of an innocent child in a similar way we do today. The idea that something as innocent as a child could be something evil has been used in films like "The Ring", "The Shining", "Omen" and many others. The other monster I found to be a good, but very strange example, is known as the "Shrime". It has been written about only once. A samurai was walking through the forest and glimpsed a man, naked and facing away from him, bending over to reveal a eyeball staring straight at him. The samurai, understandably terrified, ran away without looking back.

Unpleasant illustration of a "Shrime"

The only reason I draw attention to this particular creature, is that is reflects a certain type of grotesque and almost indescribably Japanese creature design. 

A few examples of video game creatures of Japanese Design that I believe show a similar style to that of the Shrime

Western monsters seem to take on a much less nightmarishly grotesque, inhuman look.


Next I wanted to look at some western folklore to compare. Perhaps with bias, I first looked at england's folk creatures (http://kelly-zigler.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/creatures-from-british-folklore.html). I found that many of the feared creatures (the ones that weren't members of the Fae, faeries, goblins, brownies, etc.) are slight variations of the same creatures, with the exception of "Guytrash, the phantom cow with saucer eyes":

• The black dog (Barguest, Hell Hounds, Padfoot) an omen of death, probably stemming from Cerberus, or possibly a deeper fear.
• A "drowner", a creature that pulls it's victim underwater to drown (gindylow, mermaids) a good example of horror connecting with common nightmares.

One I did find that is still quite a scary thought is that of "Black Annis" an old hag with iron strong claws that captures and eats children before hanging their skins on the wall of her cave. This creature shows a definite similarity to "The Creeper" from the film "Jeepers Creepers" only the Creeper was implied to be of demon origin. This got me thinking about the origins of American horror. Most American horror films are based around the idea of hell, a fate a thousand times worse than death. I tried to think of a good example of a period in history this could have stemmed from. The Salem Witch trials perhaps. 

I remembered an episode of QI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj6t0FwJpWw) which had a brief look at the fundamentalism of the American Puritans. The show mentioned how puritans fled england because they were not allowed to persecute others for being "heretics". This way of thinking being allowed eventually led to the Salem Witch Trials and many other acts that come with fundamentalist puritanical thought. I think it is because of this conditioned fear of "fire and brimstone", eternal torture and a definitive sense of what is good and what is evil that lead to horror stories like "The Exorcist", "Omen", "Drag me to Hell" and so on. I believe it is this that eventually lead to the video game horror we see today. The other area of American horror, which seems to be very rare in horror games is the idea of serial killers, the partial paranoia that the killer may really be among us.


Having looked into the western origins of horror from the region, I decided to look more closely at Japan. Not really knowing where to start, I started typing anything I felt relavant to the subject. I eventually discovered "Kaidan", Japanese ghost stories from the "Edo Period" (1603 to 1868). These stories are said to have greatly influenced Japanese horror (http://www.sarudama.com/japanese_folklore/kaidan_modern.shtml). These stories often have a strong romantic element, so much in fact that many of these stories have been adapted without the ghosts. However, in terms of horror, the genre reflects the Japanese view of death as being evil, or more specifically, the decay the comes with it. This is perhaps because of a different view of the afterlife. Japanese Shintoism does not have the same idea of heaven and hell shared by many monothiestic religions. This means that death is, more or less the worst thing that could happen and decay always follows. This is why their stories often revolve around the spirits of the dead, who are often malicious or vengeful. The Kaidan often commonly show elements of the Shinto belief in Kami, spirits. These spirits are in everything. Each Kami has their own will and can be kind or malicious.

 Many modern J-Horror film makers have credited Kaidan as an influence, "Director Yoshihiro Hoshino’s 2004 film entitled “Cursed” tells a far less familiar contemporary urban. From start to finish this tale has a very modern feel to it, but all the classic Kaidan elements are present if you are looking for them.  Even the genre-busting J-Horror films such as Hideo Nakata’s “Ring” or Takashi Shimizu’s “Ju-On” have been said to borrow from the historical Kaidan formula with their geographically-based ghost stories which begin as localized urban legends and then spread as victims of the horror increase" (Foutz, 2008).

Having looked at folk tales I decided to try and find some more modern influences. A game I had been playing as a part of this research (see contextualstudies12.blogspot.co.uk for Liam's report), Amnesia; The Dark Descent, was said to be heavily influenced by the American author H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft has several recurring themes (source: Wikipedia, I own a copy of H.P.L.'s collected works so I can confirm the accuracy of the source).

• Forbidden Knowledge. The idea that some knowledge and the pursuit of it is dangerous. Definitly explored in Amnesia which is heavily lovecraft inspired. Silent Hill is also a good example which shows Silent Hill as a place full of forbidden knowledge. Resident Evil is another good example where characters put themselves in danger by learning more and more about the T virus and it's origins.
• Non-Human influences on humanity. Can be found in many horror and sci-fi games, films and literature. including Alien, Silent Hill, Mass Effect, etc.
• Inherited Guilt. The idea that guilt can be passed down from father to son. Not a popular idea in contemporary storytelling. Not found in many modern horrors.
• Fate. The idea that you can not change your destiny. This could be manifested in games by the lack of control over the situation given to the player in games. This also shows heavily in Silent Hill. The town, Silent Hill "pulls" you to it because of what you have done i.e. what you have done has sealed your fate.
• Civilization under threat. A very common narrative element in games today. Certainly in games like Resident Evil. This gives the player a feeling of epic importance, adding to the feeling that they are under threat, thus adding to the feeling of fear.
•  Rascism. Lovecraft was under the impression that some races were superior to others. Not a popular idea in most media today. Some debate about this with Resident Evil 5.
• Risks of Science. The idea that man may one day go too far. Resident evil is, yet again, a good example. Dead Space and other sci fi horrors often strongly carry this theme.
• Religion. The idea of Occultism. Common in many horrors, although rare in popular horror game, more commonly found in adventure games.

I also noticed that Lovecraft had a definite knack for suspense, something he seems to have picked up from a great influence of his, Edgar Allan Poe.


Poe is considered a master of suspense and, although not strictly a horror writer, he did write "to disturb". I noticed from reading his short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" that his use of the first person pulls you into the imagery a lot more, although it is through the mind of a mad man. The first person perspective is used in Amnesia to a similar effect. The character you play is still capable of going mad making you feel chilled by what you see through the mad man's eyes. Poe also uses very grim imagery, "...a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - very gradually -I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid my self of the eye forever". This language alone bring (classically conditioned) images of death and general morbidity, as well as a tone that suggests a calm nature, which is especially disturbing when you consider the character is talking about murdering someone. The suspense I mentioned influence Lovecraft and all those influence by him is especially rife in this story. The tone and imagery builds, almost to breaking point. Every horror game does this, often in building waves.

After gathering this research, the group met to collaborate. We talked about how we might go about connecting each of these topics and then putting them into slides. We decided we would focus on 4 game franchises. 2 Japanese and 2 Western. Silent Hill and Resident Evil for Japan; and Dead Space and Amnesia for the West. We found that they all shared very similar elements in gameplay, visuals, narrative and in their influence. We also noticed that where Silent Hill and Resident Evil had all taken enormous amounts of inspiration from western culture, Dead Space had taken a lot from Japanese culture. We split with a much more definite idea of what we were doing. We intend on meeting again to use what we know about the connections in subjects to create a presentation. To help with this I have been creating a mind map to shown the connections. Although the subject is far to big to cover in a mind map there is a lot to be read from the clusters and patterns that form in the mind map itself, shown below.

Green: Gameplay Elements, Indigo: Influences, Turquoise: Themes, Pink: Psychological Elements Viridian: Visual Elements, Gold: Games and Scarlet: Sources.