Contacts between cinema and video games have never been scarce: video game characters land in cinema at least as frequently as film characters arrive in video games, just think of the various official film titles. However, the development that video gaming has been experiencing in recent years has led it to be an increasingly in-depth medium, churning out titles that can certainly be called cinematic. Not so much in terms of visuals as in terms of writing: some video game storylines are so carefully crafted that they could easily be transposed into screenplays, as has already happened with the TV series The Last of Us. A video game genre that has always been very successful is precisely the horror genre, which leads us to ask: can a horror video game be considered on the level of horror cinema?
The answer can only come through the examination of some of the most celebrated names in video game horror, and while it would be pointless to dwell on The Last of Us you can start with a series that needs no introduction: Resident Evil. The Japanese saga is one of the landmarks of the horror video game, capable of building a complex and layered story from one of the great classics of the genre: the zombie apocalypse. The overall plot of the work, which began in 1996, features as its antagonist the Umbrella Corporation, a bioengineering company that, through experiments that went out of control, created a virus capable of turning humans into zombies. The set of individual storylines, which unfold over a variety of titles that are still being published today, perfectly replicates some of the unfailing aspects of cinematic horror, including the artificial origin of zombies. It is no coincidence that, among the derivative works, Resident Evil you also boast film adaptations.
The success of pixel zombies, however, is no guarantee of memorable storylines. It is a theme that boasts countless video game representations: among them, that of Dying Light. Again, the mutation that gives rise to the zombies is artificial, but the points of contact with cinematic plots end there: the horror plot turns out to be quite simple and functional to some of the game's gameplay elements, which keep the title far from authorial heights.
On a middle ground stands Days Gone: the classic zombie outbreak, always artificial, serves as a backdrop to the much more human story of the protagonist. Despite the classic horror themes in the background, these are precisely the backdrop of the events : the plot, definitely worthy of a film script, uses horror as a function of the events, rather than the other way around.
In fact, horror themes are found in dozens of video games in which they merely represent a mere quotation and nothing more: not surprisingly, they are frequently used even in simple titles, as in the case of casual games. Take slot machines: in their video game guise they have always been characterized by the greatest freedom of expression, which has led digital operators to include a extensive list of titles in their own sites. Examples abound, from 3 Witches a Horror Hotel: titles characterized by resorting to horror themes by merely using their most recognizable symbols. Even a title like Plants Vs Zombies employs the same stratagems: a casual game that, among the dozens of possible settings, merely chooses the zombie horror one, without thereby having any pretense of a cinematic plot.
Yet, other far more compelling horror-inspired plots dot the video game market titles. Let's look at The Sinking City: it's the 1920s and we have to investigate a mysterious coastal New England town that has been totally flooded. If anyone thought of Lovecraft, they guessed right: from The Shadow of Innsmouth a The Call of Cthulhu, the references are explicit and obvious. Also Vampyr holds true to its name: a doctor, ironically a hematologist, becomes a vampire in 1918 London, where he can decide whether to oppose his new nature or give in to it. We then take the series The Evil Within, another Japanese survival horror: the plot revolves around supernatural forces and enemies worthy of any dream horror film. All of these examples are characterized by extremely carefully crafted and articulated plots: a horror film could be based on their scripts without any problem.
In conclusion, what answer to the question in the opening? Definitely negative: the horror video game, taken as a whole, certainly cannot equate with horror cinema. The examples to the contrary, however, confirm that video games can be a medium with the same depth as films-a consideration that applies to all particularly curated film-video game relationships not necessarily confined to the horror genre.
