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Can books be scary? Are video games not the best medium for horror?

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Statue of Limitation

Statue of Limitation

Member
Proposition: The genre of horror is best conveyed with the medium which gives the audience the most agency.

With both literature and film/tv, this agency is zero. As great as the threat might be, as chilling the setting might be, the audience will always be safe in the knowledge that they are experiencing fiction and that they themselves are sage.

For either medium to scare a person, they need to get the audience to treat the characters as an avatar for themselves. The audience is always safe, but the characters are in danger and they can fear for the character.

Hard to do with literature in my opinion. I can enjoy Stephen King books and other horror books, but I'm never scared or even tense. I can watch particularly good horror films and find myself anxious.

But its only playing scary video games, where I have full agency over the situation - and most easily treat the character as an avatar, that I get genuinely scared. The avatar is in danger and it is most responsibility to save it.

Am I wrong? I'm a fan of the genre, and if so, I would love to be pointed in the right direction for some truly scary literature.
 
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Torraz

Member
Don't think any video game has ever given me nightmares. A book, though, did.
'IT' by Steven King. Could also depend on the fact that i was around 12 when I read that book, however.
 
F

Fevaweva

Member
I refuse to play Amnesia after playing it for about 45 minutes and getting too scared to continue.

I think you might be right about Video Games.
 
N

Nev

Banned
I've been petrified while reading Salem's Lot. I was 17 but I had already seen and played a lot of horror stuff. The only other time when I felt the same was playing Amnesia during a certain part.
 
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Grym

Member
I guess I don't see it the same way. Games have given me cheap jump scares pretty often, but not psychological nightmare inducing scares like books have
 
S

Solemn_In_Berlin

Member
Books can indeed be scary. That's the power of language at work. But I do believe that video games are indeed the best medium for horror. There's the soundtrack, the atmosphere, and of course, the interaction. You just can't progress without omitting the scariest parts.
 
B

British Monsoon

Member
I think the direct control aspect of horror video games allows the user to more easily slip into the role of the protagonist - in literature the user is often handled as a voyeur, watching events unfold from outside, or reads the work as an account, written after the fact. It's up to the writer to draw the reader in, in spite of these common obstacles, and evoke the appropriate feeling or state of mind that will allow the reader to really put themselves in the character's situation, or empathise with those characters. Obviously, some writers are better at it than others and, even with skilled horror authors, there's no guarantee a reader will react in the appropriate way. Horror video games, on the other hand, can much more readily rely on scaring the user with visual surprises and atmospheric tension.
 
D

danwarb

Member
Yes.

Games can create a scary atmosphere, but you're limited by the simple gameplay and story telling restrictions.
 
Arkos

Arkos

Nose how to spell and rede to
Interesting proposition. I'm sure there is scary literature and there are obviously scary movies, but I probably haven't ever been as viscerally and personally scared as I have been by some video games (the first time you go into the water in REmake and you know something terrifying is going to happen but you have to do it lol).

On the other hand, I think one of the things that is scary about movies, where you have zero agency, is precisely that. You have to just sit there and watch whatever horrible shit happens and yelling at the screen won't help :/ at least I can pause or go stand in the save room if a game is getting intense.

So it's kind of a give and take maybe. It seems like loss of agency is still actually an important part of any "horror." You're being "forced" to experience unsettling things either way
 
T

thecouncil

Banned
I read a short story the other day called "In the room..."

It gave me chills reading it.

It gave me chills thinking about it the next day.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Books can be scary, maybe even scarier than games. Games rely a lot on the visual, the jump scares, the physical horror and in your face terror. Even games like Silent Hill rely on the creature design and the visual otherworldliness of the town

But books deliver more on establishing dread and unease. Through wordings, descriptions, scenarios, books can unnerve and terrify in a deeper, subtle, more subconscious and psychological ways. Through implications and slow unravelings that send chills down your spine.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
Grym said:
I guess I don't see it the same way. Games have given me cheap jump scares pretty often, but not psychological nightmare inducing scares like books have
Click to expand...

Yeah, jump scares don't do much for me either and this is still what most horror-themed games rely on.

Also depends on the mindset you have. I don't really play video games from a power fantasy viewpoint and project myself onto the player character like others seem to do.
 
J

Joe Shlabotnik

Banned
While it didn't quite affect me personally as much, House Of Leaves seems to have given lots and lots of people a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.

Literature can't do jump scares, obviously. And video games can REALLY, REALLY do jump scares. But those are kind of the cheap highs of horror, and if you do too much of it you desensitize the audience. Literature can do the kind of horror where you shudder every time you think about it. It's not as easy and it's not as in-the-moment but I think it's more effective long-term.

So it depends on the kind of "scary" you're talking about. But I do agree video games are especially effective at certain kinds of horror, and nothing's particularly holding them back from the subtler kinds of scary, either.
 
S

Sullichin

Member
Torraz said:
Don't think any video game has ever given me nightmares. A book, though, did.
'IT' by Steven King. Could also depend on the fact that i was around 12 when I read that book, however.
Click to expand...

thesuperfunk said:
Horrifying book!
Click to expand...

Re-reading it now and it's still scary. This book is not scary because of the cliche horror movie monster encounters within. It's scary because it's fucking disturbing. The monster stuff helps.

Don't think I've ever been scared by a video game, in comparison.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
This short story is always unsettling to me
2:00 pm: The Real Estate Agent Arrives - Steve Rasnic

In the backyard, after the family moved away: blue chipped bowl, worn-out dog collar, torn little boy shorts, Dinosaur T-shirt, rope, rusty can, child's mask lined with sand. In the corner the faint outline of a grave, dog leash lying like half a set of parentheses. Then you remember. The family had no pets
Click to expand...
 
T

thecouncil

Banned
More_Badass said:
Books can be scary, maybe even scarier than games. Games rely a lot on the visual, the jump scares, the physical horror and in your face terror. Even games like Silent Hill rely on the creature design and the visual otherworldliness of the town

But books deliver more on establishing dread and unease. Through wordings, descriptions, scenarios, books can unnerve and terrify in a deeper, subtle, more subconscious and psychological ways. Through implications and slow unravelings that send chills down your spine.
Click to expand...

I agree.

The OP assumes that the only way to be scared is to feel threatened.
 
F

Fevaweva

Member
Never been scared by a book. Books have made me laugh, cry and pump my fists with joy but never terror.

Not even The Shining.
 
M

Manmademan

Member
Grym said:
I guess I don't see it the same way. Games have given me cheap jump scares pretty often, but not psychological nightmare inducing scares like books have
Click to expand...

hard to say which is "better"- books can be pretty damned immersive.

Silent hill 1 though was pretty notable for going the psychological horror route over jump scares. It was revolutionary when it came out and not a lot of games consistently hit that note as well as silent hill does.

Even PT short as it is manages to generate the "fuck it, i can't play this" feeling pretty well with atmosphere alone.
 
B

Blood Red Sky

Banned
Can anyone recommend any good novels that create a creepy, unsettling atmosphere? Not just straight-up disgusting violence or torture porn. Maybe something with ghosts?
 
M

Maklershed

Member
I absolutely love reading and feel I have a pretty vivid imagination so horror books do get to me but having said that, nothing can scare me like horror video games. I just get so wrapped up into them. The visuals, the music and the threat of my character/avatar being harmed - it gets to be too much for me honestly.

Blood Red Sky said:
Can anyone recommend any good novels that create a creepy, unsettling atmosphere? Not just straight-up disgusting violence or torture porn. Maybe something with ghosts?
Click to expand...

Very Dead Space-ish ...


Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear
 
K

kswiston

Member
Books are not scary in the loud sound/monster closet way that movies and games often rely on for shocks. However, since you can get away with a lot more in written word than you can in film/games (without getting a rating that will make recovering your investment impossible), they can be a lot more disturbing.
 
P

Peru

Member
Horror games can be 'monster in the closet' scary like few others, jump scares are perfect for it, but books can definitely be scary in profound ways. As a kid Roald Dahl's "The Witches" messed me up big time, for years I was nervous walking alone on a road with a woman wearing gloves approaching.. didn't help that the witch lore presented in the book named my country as a witch hotspot where gruesome events had gone down. The set-up in that book was really effective.
 
Wiktor

Wiktor

Member
Depends. Games are best at creating scares, but there's more to genre than that. A good horror novel can unnerve the reader for far longer than any game could. With game the moment you hit pause and turn on the lights the fear is gone, while good novels have a way of crawling into your brain and staying there.

Plus there's also the matter of imagination. You know how they say that in movies the monster stops being scary the moment they show him? It applies to games too. And it doesn't matter how good graphic designers are, they will never be able to surpass the monstrocities your imagination creates, because it creates them specifically suited for your memories and experiences.
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
Books have never been able to scare me. I love reading and I get very invested on it but horror just work for me in book form. I got desensitized to horror films at a young age so only have actually scared and they just don't make those kinds very often. A good horror game will usually get me though. I'm very susceptible to them which is why I love them so much.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Books can being the psychological horror.. The appeal of which is mostly "morbid curiosity".

But games can trigger actual fight or flight responses in us, so they win.

Can't wait for VR horror games.
 
J

jasonng

Member
House of Leaves has been sitting in my Amazon shopping cart for years now because I'm too chicken shit to read it. I really want to though.
 
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teruterubozu

Member
The restart/respawn option doesn't make games very scary either - it's another example of being "safe in the knowledge" with no sense of threat. Plus most enemies in video games look silly.
 
Z

Zeuanimals

Member
I don't read very many horror novels but I've read some damn good creepypastas that have given me near nightmares whereas games tend to just be jump scares. The good horror games with great atmosphere and that can mess with your psyche can be pretty damn scary, but even they rely on visual information too much. True horror for me comes from what I don't see.
 
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Thorgal

Member
I would say it can .
If you have a vivid imagination , the image that is created in your mind from reading a horror book can be far worse then any movie can and/ won't even dare to recreate .
 
A

Anung

Un Rama
Horror books can be scary. They can build up this great atmosphere and can be so much more subtle by capturing the readers imagination. I do think games might be better as an interactive medium, as its the player who has to move forward or confront the scares. Films and books you can just look away stop reading.
 
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Jedi2016

Member
Clearly you've never read Stephen King. Yes, they can be scary. I'd go so far as to say truly horrifying. While it's not "your" story in the way a game portrays it, everything else is filled in by your imagination, which can potentially be far worse than even the author anticipated, and will always surpass what a bunch of pixels on a screen can do.
 
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