{"id":14800099,"date":"2016-03-26T22:44:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-26T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horror.dreamdawn.com\/?p=14800099"},"modified":"2016-03-26T22:44:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T22:44:00","slug":"packaging-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horror.dreamdawn.com\/?p=14800099","title":{"rendered":"Packaging Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dead Secret<\/a><\/em>, the mystery game I’ve been working on since 2013, will be released on Steam<\/a> and Oculus on Monday, so I thought I’d write about something I thought about a lot while making it: strategically setting the player’s expectations.<\/p>\n

\"32703911\"<\/a>A couple of years ago I was browsing my favorite weirdo bookstore<\/a> in Japan and found a thin volume called\u00a0\u3044\u308b\u306e\u3044\u306a\u3044\u306e\uff1f (Iruno Inaino?,\u00a0<\/em>“Is Anyone There?”). \u00a0It is a “horror picture book,” written and drawn in the style of a children’s story, with a hardback binding, simple grammar, and large, full-page pictures. \u00a0It’s actually a part of a series of short horror stories all done in this style by a variety of artists. \u00a0Despite its looks, this isn’t a book for kids. \u00a0I hid it on the top shelf of my bookcase so that my eight-year-old won’t accidentally read it before she’s ready (which is probably not for a few years). \u00a0It’s scary.<\/p>\n

I suspect that part of the reason\u00a0Iruno Inaino?<\/em> is effective is precisely because it’s presented\u00a0as a children’s book. \u00a0The protagonist is a child. The narration is from the child’s perspective, in the child’s voice, and uses an age-appropriate vocabulary. \u00a0Without spoiling it for the four or five of you who are going to find it on Amazon, import it, and translate the Japanese, it deals with a fear that any child might feel. \u00a0A simple, basic fear that we can identify with even as adults. \u00a0The story is effective, but the ultimate effect is achieved by all the elements of the book working together to set your expectations and then defy them. \u00a0Children’s books, as a rule, are not supposed to be scary. \u00a0Definitely not this scary. \u00a0The packaging\u00a0of Iruno Inaino?<\/em>\u00a0is designed to be disarming. \u00a0It\u00a0leaves us\u00a0vulnerable to the sharp edge of the story’s thin blade.<\/p>\n

Horror is about loss of control. \u00a0It’s about uncertainty<\/a>. \u00a0A good horror story throws us for a loop and plays with our expectations. \u00a0Sometimes this happens because the story has been framed to lead our expectations elsewhere.<\/p>\n

I do not think that\u00a0Event Horizon<\/em> is a very good film. \u00a0It’s absolutely derivative of\u00a0Alien<\/em> (a better movie by every standard) and offers very little in the way of compelling story or interesting characters. \u00a0About half way through it drops all pretense of plot and goes straight for gore. \u00a0And yet, the first time I saw it, I must admit that it scared the shit out of me. \u00a0There I was, operating under the theory that good horror stories are, first and foremost,\u00a0good stories<\/em>, and wondering how this fairly uninteresting example of space fear managed to get the drop on me. After a second viewing I figured it out:\u00a0Event Horizon<\/em>\u00a0was scary because it caught me off guard. \u00a0The advertising I had seen led me to believe that it was a 2001<\/em>-style Space Explorers\u00a0movie and not a scary horror film. \u00a0I went in expecting\u00a0Mission to Mars<\/em>\u00a0and got\u00a0Alien<\/em> instead. \u00a0Even as a derivative of\u00a0Alien<\/em>, the mechanisms it uses are effective, particularly if you are not expecting them. \u00a0The second viewing was a comparatively bland affair because I now knew what to expect (Alien,\u00a0<\/em>on the other hand, still scares me).<\/p>\n

Packaging and presentation of horror media sets expectations. \u00a0And expectations matter\u00a0a whole lot<\/em> to the final experience. \u00a0Folks who are really good at horror understand this and control the presentation of their works very carefully.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, this early trailer for Frictional Games’\u00a0SOMA<\/em>, released almost two years before the game itself came out:<\/p>\n