The following is the first installment of a two-part series. In the late 19th century, authorities at the morgue in Paris, overwhelmed with unclaimed bodies,
The following is the first installment of a two-part series.
In the late 19th century, authorities at the morgue in Paris, overwhelmed with unclaimed bodies, made the decision to put those bodies on display to the public, in the hopes that someone would recognize a corpse. In these new days of burgeoning urban centres and mass culture, the *salle d’exposition *displays became a new kind of participatory medium. Onlookers used the pretense of possible identification of the bodies to justify their curiosity. Street vendors sold food to the lines of crowds (353), and the bodies were displayed on marble slabs with green curtains hanging on either side (89).
As with public executions in the
past, this rather theatrical display brought out many people’s taste for the
macabre, and marked the beginning of legal and legitimate forms of 20th
century public reality horror entertainment. In the late 20th
century, audiences of the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show(Jim
Sharman, 1975) would begin chanting words and phrases at the film during
screenings, in what has since become a staple of any theatrical viewing of the
film. The act of watching has frequently overlapped with the act of
participating.
In his bookConvergence Culture, Henry Jenkins theorizes that the variety of media platforms and interfaces available in the 21st century will create a merging of content across said platforms. And while this is likely, I would argue that there is also a merging of style and execution, particularly with regards to audience participation. There is an increasing cross-over in style, content, execution and marketing strategies of horror films and video games.
Films such as The Blair Witch
Project(Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez, 1999), [REC](Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza, 2007), Paranormal
Activity(Oren Peli, 2007), Cloverfield(Matt Reeves, 2008) and Diary
of the Dead(George A. Romero, 2007) utilize the concept of found
footage/first person perspective to make the spectator a character in the film.
Video games such as Half-Life, Doom, Resident Eviland Tomb
Raiderincorporate film narrative technique and cut-away scenes to give the
impression of a film within the game.
If we are living in the era of the
cult of the amateur, we are also living in the era of on-demand culture. The
internet has allowed not only for greater and constant access to media, but for
the average consumer to control and participate in that media. The horror genre
seeks from its spectators an almost constant heightened emotional state, where
the challenge is to make it through to the end of the film/game alive.
In this paper, I will examine the
horror genre’s proclivity for audience participation, the first-person
perspective and the cult of the real in fiction, the internet and other popular
media’s increase of the desire for participation, and the proliferation of
marketing techniques exclusive to the internet. In addition, I will present
case studies of films and video games that utilize the first-person camera to
actively encourage a particular kind of participation, and the paratextual
devices used by horror films and video games to invite spectator involvement.
Finally, I will examine a selection of films that, while not shot from the
first-person perspective, explore and utilize the video game aesthetic.
While most films intend to provoke
an emotional reaction from the spectator, horror films seek to elicit little
but the most intense emotions. But these films also provide a challenge to the
spectator: will they, as an extension of the characters in the film, survive
the horror? There is an emotional gratification to getting through a scene
alive, much like in a video game.
Horror video games have a direct
connection to this challenge, for the gamer must make it through a scene alive,
or start the scene over again (a privilege obviously not afforded to the film
spectator). There is a large crossover of audience between horror gamers and
horror film spectator.
Tanya Krzywinska writes: “Horror offers death as spectacle and actively promises transgression; it has the power to promote physical sensation.” There is a deviance to horror that makes it appealing; an ability to look upon activities that one normally would not, and in the case of games, act upon the desire to participate in such activities.
In most horror films and games,
though, the main character (that is to say, the one the spectator/gamer is
meant to identify with) is in the position of good rather than evil. That is
not to say that the spectator/gamer does not or would not enjoy being/playing
the villain, but it is rare for that to be allowed in film/games.**The authors of Film Art write of the standard horror film monster,
“If the monster horrifies us because it violates the laws of nature we know,
the genre is well suited to suggest the limits of human knowledge” (330).
One could argue that the limit of
human knowledge is the end of their nose; that is to say, one cannot know what
it is like to see through another person’s eyes. Given the intense emotional
nature of the horror genre, horror films/games that utilize the first-person
perspective are uniquely adapted to test this limit of human knowledge. Since
this genre frequently shows that which is not just supernatural, but outside
the realm of most people’s experience (murder, apocalypse, etc.), the first-person
perspective allows the spectator’s emotional experience to be brought one step
closer to what he/she might consider reality; or at least his/her own version
of a horror reality.
In horror films/games, there is
usually a discernible goal (more often than not survival). Anne Bartsch writes, “Emotions can also be gratifying due to
their goal conductivenessand controllability” (131). While the
spectator of a film cannot control the actions or outcome as a gamer can, there
is still a power derived from the first-person perspective. Although the
identity of the cinematographer is usually known (if not visually at least
aurally), the spectator can superimpose his or her own identity, morals and
values onto that person and become the cameraperson.
In a horror game, the avatar is
usually known (again, if not visually at least by voice) and the gaming console becomes the first-person camera, the means of interaction
in the horror. The challenge to survive the film/game is heightened when the
spectator/gamer becomes a part of the film/game, and by extension the emotions
are heightened, making this genre more popular and more adept at the use of the
first-person camera perspective.
Film theorist Andre Bazin felt that the most
important aspect of film was that it represents reality, that it recreates the
real world. For the past ten years, some of the most popular shows on
television have been so-called “reality shows,” and documentary films have seen
a surge in popularity over approximately the same time period. According to
Nielson Ratings, at least
two if not more reality television shows have been in the top twenty weekly
ratings of shows since 2001.**Joel Black writes in The Reality Effect, “Reality is never more in demand than it is
in our global mass-mediated film culture”(15). And yet, according to
Box Office Mojo, six of the top ten US domestic grossing films for 2009 were
fantasy based. Philosopher Jean Baudrillard theorized that the lines between
the real and the fictional were become more blurred with current technologies.
This begs the question: does the
spectator desire reality, or does he/she desire to see him/herself on the
screen? If the spectator can see him/herself as a participant on a television
show such as Survivor, why can they not also see themselves running
through a forest trying to get away from a zombie? Margrit Schreier writes, “Reception studies have usually been based
on the normative assumption that recipients ought to be able to draw a clear
distinction between fact and fiction” (307). But as technology allows the
spectator to become more directly involved with the product, Brigid Cherry writes, “One aspect of everyday life that has been
key in contemporary horror cinema is technology and the new media culture that
has been engendered by the internet, game consoles, mobile phone communication
and multi-channel television” (186).
As discussed before, arguably more
than other genres, the intense emotional nature of horror engages
the spectator to a greater extent than other genres of film and games, and
contemporary technology, because it can allow the spectator more involvement,
creates a desire for involvement. The first-person perspective in a horror film
asks of its spectator, what is real? How would you define real? Would you, as
in Diary of the Dead, be able to shoot a friend who was bitten by a
zombie, this supposing in the realm of the film that zombies are real? And for
the gamer, Edward T. Hall writes, “The computer is an extension or part of the
brain” (3). The same quote goes on to say, “…the telephone extends the voice,
the wheel extends the legs and feet,” suggesting that technology becomes an
extension of our bodies.
First-person perspective in a
horror game puts a console in the hands of the gamer; a console that is on the
screen a gun, and “gamers are actively engaged in the actions and choices that
the game character makes, they are at the same time making those choices as
gamers in the real world and as characters in a fictional world” (DeMaria 74).
The aesthetic of the first-person perspective not only creates the emotional
experience; it allows the visceral nature of the horror film to be taken one
step further. The spectator still desires the fictional world through a
construct of reality.
This desire
for participation through this new mode of spectatorship could be an extension
of the current “on-demand” culture. In the western world in particular, societies
with the means to do so, have constant and relatively unmitigated access to
cinematic entertainment. If the movie theatres are closed, there is television;
if you don’t like what is on television, there is YouTube and countless other
websites where a spectator can watch not only famous movies, but infamous and
homemade ones as well.
If you want
interactivity, get a gaming console. Oddey and White write, “The new mode of spectating is to focus only
on what “I” want to see; on my perception of the world as “I” see it” (8). Not
only can the spectator see what they want when they want, but also howthey want. The first-person perspective suggests that each individual has
something to offer; that it is you, the spectator, who are necessary to
complete this story or to win this game.
Jenkins
writes, “New technologies are enabling average
consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content”
(1). The individual has never been more important in consumer technological
culture. Any given spectator might have myriad of profiles and identities on
various websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. The spectator
immerses themselves in these various identities, which may or may not be close
to the reality of his/herself, but which nonetheless they interact with the
world through, through technological means.
The film
screen and the game console become an extension of this through the first-person
perceptive. The film/game creates a kind of avatar for the spectator/gamer, who
then becomes part of the story directly. In his book **Distinction,
Pierre Bourdieu writes of
the “deep-rooted demand for participation … the desire to enter into the
game” (33). In the film **Being John
Malkovich, a character
discovers a portal that, when passed through,allows the spectator to
become John Malkovich for 15 minutes. And while the desire to become someone
else (however briefly) can be seen in certain online games, there is still
desire for unmediated access to the fictional space through us, through
spectator contribution.
The
spectatorship of horror films/games leans more toward the scenario proposed in
the film **The Matrix through the character of Neo. Thespectator/gamer
wants not to be someone else, but to find the “hero” within him/herself. The
spectator justifies their presence at the morgue in 19th century
Paris by virtue of their contribution, their unique ability to be the hero and
identify the corpse. The horror film/game spectator/gamer becomes part of the
first-person perspective through their individual contribution.
Of course,
this kind of role-playing is not new or exclusive to the cinematic apparatuses.
Role-playing board games that evolved out of war games from the 19th
century became popular in the mid-20th century with the creation of
Dungeons and Dragons and similar games, according to Mackey (14). This is when the idea of a “character”
or “characters” came about, and participation became a part of the medium.
Gamers controlled specific characters, which were a combination of his/her own
self and their ideal self. Many of the games grew out of literature, and
created its own subculture, which in turn created its own conventions,
organizations and newsletters (16).
But while
stories in the media (both in years past and continuing today) often associate
video games and gameplay with a kind of cultural decline, falling standards of
literacy and educational achievement, (as shown by Newman), other studies have shown that the majority
of gamers are educated and literate (4). And this is a crossover audience, legions
of fantasy, science fiction and horror film fans, as shown by Mackay (15). Mathew Kumar told me, “there is a
significant cross-over between gamers and horror films that use first person
camera styles … gamers like horror.”
Not only are spectators/gamers watching these films and playing these games for their participatory nature, they are expanding their participation into the internet. Chat rooms are created for fans to interact to discussing films and game strategies; hundreds write so-called “fan fiction,” writing their own stories based on the characters and setting of various horror films and games, and sometimes even reality television shows.
Although, it is hard to give an exact reference for this information. After some internet searches using terms such as “horror”, “participation”, “role-playing” and similar terms used in this essays, hundreds of sites would come up with connection to chat rooms. Typing in “fan fiction” yields similar results.
New sites of
audience expression have been created since the technology became available,
suggesting the desire for this level of participation has always been there,
and technology is just now catching up. Andrew MacTavish suggests that, “the movie viewer and the gamer may share a
psychologically active oscillation” (45). The visceral impact of participation
in games can transfer to the visceral emotional impact of films.
The new
system of simulation through the first-person perspective, allowed by
contemporary cinematic technology, has created a participatory reception in
horror film, and a receptatory participation in horror games. A spectator/gamer
can participate through chat rooms, fan fiction, and
communication with other fans, and participate actively in the story itself. In
his book Games Cultures, Jon Dovey writes that there is a claim that “the ‘old’ system
of representation is collapsing in the face of the ‘new’ system of simulation”
(10). This may be true.
As technology
and software applications allow for not only greater interaction between
people, but also the ability of those people to create their own entertainment,
the desire to be a part of entertainment arguably increases, particularly for
fans of horror. The genre lends itself not only to emotional investment, but
temporal investment and participation.
According to
the Entertainment
Software Association, the average
age of people who play video or computer games is 35. And while horror films
tend to attract a younger audience, a healthy portion of those who attend are
in the same age range. Certainly, game and film companies make a large
marketing effort to gain the much-coveted youth audience, recognizing that most
people enjoy a wide variety of art and entertainment forms; for example, in the late 1990s, Playstation moved away from conventional
marketing formats and hyped their product at the Glastonbury Festival (23).
There are
different wants and expectations with different media formats. But as Andrew
Keen points out in his book The Cult of the**Amateur, as people
read fewer newspapers and go to fewer movies, what is becoming morepopular
is the internet, suggesting that we enjoy a certain amount of involvement with
content and enjoy being part of the process. Part of the apparatus of that
process becomes in horror films/games the first-person perspective.
The
generation that enjoys gaming, with an average age of 35, is also the
generation to whom the home movie camera was the norm. The technology of the
movie camera was not foreign, not seeing oneself in a film unexpected. The exposure
to the home movie genre (if it can be called that) leads to an association of
oneself as part of the story, and hence a factor in the desire to be a
spectator/gamer in the game. The spectator, in seeing themselves
in home movies and in filming these home movies, can develop a kind of
parasocial relationship with the characters in horror films/games that utilize
the first-person perspective.
Dovey writes,
“computer games require a manipulation of technology [that] underpins our
adoption of technology as an ‘extension’ of ourselves” (32). As more people
carry technology in their pockets (so to speak) on a constant basis, and we see
technology as a regular extension of us, our desire for the emotionally
engaging experience extends to entertainment and seeing ourselves involved in
entertainment. Websites such as YouTube,6 (as opposed to sites such
as Facebook, where one can exert control over who can see the content), allow
anyone with a computer, a webcam, and an internet connection to upload anything
that could potential be watched by thousands (even if it is not worthy of
attention).
Jacques
Lacan, in his theory of the gaze, posited the saying “I see myself seeing
myself”; which is to say, the subject/spectator only recognizes him/herself
through an outside gaze. The subject relies upon the gaze of the object (what
he/she is looking at) in order to find his/her own representation. The subject
can only see his/herself as others see, so the first-person perspective allows
them direct access to this representation.
In today’s
culture of social networking and constant online access, the spectator is not
his/herself unless he/she is not alone. By extension, the spectator/gamer finds
an identity through the first-person perspective given to them by horror
films/games.
When The
Blair Witch Projectbecame the surprise hit of the 1999 season, many
critics and spectators called it a groundbreaking film, referring to its style
and mode of communication. Certainly, several things about it were
groundbreaking. As stated before, it was one of the first films to utilize the
internet as a primary means of marketing.
A website was
created months before the film was released; this website (which is still in
operation) perpetuated the myth that the film was a documentary. Posters
replicating the graphic design of missing persons posters, featuring
the film’s actors were placed around various large university campuses and
replicated on the website. Further, a documentary, The Curse of the Blair
Witch, aired on cable television’s Sci-Fi Channel a few weeks before the
film’s release.
However, the found footage technique was not new, nor was the incorporation of the camera as part of the film. Documentary filmmaker Robert Drew and others like him used the handheld camera as soon as the technology was capable of being used in an easy manner, and American fiction film director John Cassavettes used a portable 16mm camera to shoot his film
Shadows(1959). The tradition of direct cinema, which records an ongoing event as it is happening, and then shown in relatively the same manner and order in which was filmed with little or no editing, can clearly be seen in The Blair Witch Project.Shelagh Rowan-Legg is a writer, filmmaker, and academic. She is a programmer for FrightFest, and a critic for Sight & Sound Magazine. She is the author of The Spanish Fantastic: Contemporary Filmmaking in Horror, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi (I.B. Tauris, 2016).