Well, for this article in my series about horror videogames, I thought that I’d talk about edgy horror games. These are horror games that focus more on using a harsh atmosphere, disturbing subject matter and/or shock value in order to horrify and disturb the player, and they are a really interesting sub-genre of horror games.
I ended up thinking about this topic after I started playing a 2D indie horror game called “The Cat Lady” (2012) again. Although I couldn’t really “get into” this game when I first tried playing it about five years ago, I found it to be a lot more compelling this time round. Seriously, I’d planned to just reinstall it and maybe look at it again for half an hour, but I had to reluctantly drag myself away from the computer after about three and a half hours of solid binge-playing. And, on both occasions, my differing reactions to it were probably due to the fact that it is unlike almost every other horror game I’ve ever played.
![Screenshot from ''The Cat Lady'' (2012)](https://pekoeblaze.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/screenshot-from-the-cat-lady-2012.jpg?w=640)
This is a screenshot from “The Cat Lady” (2012).
The closest thing I can think to compare it to isn’t even a videogame. It’s the type of edgy 1970s-1990s splatterpunk horror novels (by authors like Shaun Hutson, James Herbert etc…) that I first discovered during my teenage years in the early-mid 2000s. If you haven’t heard of splatterpunk fiction, it’s an intensely ultra-gruesome type of horror fiction that – in keeping with its “punk” name – is often also filled with lots of cynicism, nihilism, social satire and/or edginess too. Novels of this type that were written in 1970s-80s Britain were also something of a rebellion against the strict horror film censorship of the time too. Seriously, most horror movies look like Disney cartoons in comparison to some of these old splatterpunk novels. Nothing was off-limits and it wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
And, although “The Cat Lady” (2012) technically fits more into the psychological horror genre, it still has a lot of the edgy attitude of the splatterpunk genre 🙂 Filled with bitter cynicism, creepy characters, disturbing subject matter, disturbing imagery and numerous extremely cruel and/or gruesome moments, it is one of those few horror games that really feels like something that is completely uncensored. A “video(game) nasty”, if you will. The low-budget “photo-montage” style graphics also add to the punk atmosphere of the game and it is the sort of thing that you’ll feel like you “probably shouldn’t be playing”, yet will be too morbidly fascinated by the game’s grim story to stop playing it.
I would say that it’s the sort of ultra-edgy horror game that could only have been made by a rebellious indie developer from outside the “AAA” mainstream games industry, but there was once a time when mainstream horror games had a bit more of an “edge” to them. For example, although I’ve only played a small amount of the first game quite a few years ago, I can’t help but think of the “Manhunt” series (2003-2007) here. This was a series of stealth-horror games from a major “AAA” developer – Rockstar Games – that tried to be as edgy as possible.
“Manhunt” (2003) was a game that focused on a death row inmate who has been spared execution in order to participate in a cruel and murderous game for the amusement of a sadistic film director. The game’s grim moral ambiguity and focus on extreme “realistic” brutality caused no end of media controversy when it was released. “Manhunt 2” (2007) was even banned in the UK for about a year after its release. Yet, unlike these days, the 2000s were still a time when – far from damaging a games company – controversy was actually something to be actively sought after. It gave these games notoriety and – along with the equally controversial “Grand Theft Auto” series – cemented Rockstar Games’ reputation as one of the more “cool” and “rebellious” large game corporations.
The “Manhunt” games were also part of a more general shift towards extremity in the horror genre at the time, with ultra-cruel Hollywood films like “Saw” (2004) and its sequels also popularising extreme horror media for several years during the mid-late 2000s. So, surprising as it may sound, “edgy” horror was still very much a mainstream part of the genre less than two decades ago.
With horror games shifting away from “AAA” developers and more towards indie developers from about the early 2010s onwards, not to mention the rise of online game distribution too, edgy horror games could really thrive. Seriously, whilst edgier indie horror games like “Amnesia: The Dark Descent” (2010), “The Cat Lady” (2012) or “Outlast” (2013) thankfully didn’t have to contend with stricter 2000s game censorship, they’re the sort of firmly niche creative projects that would probably make modern mainstream “AAA” games companies recoil with horror. These are games made by horror fans for horror fans.
Yet, one of the fascinating things about edgy horror games – like with more extreme types of horror fiction – is that they often aren’t just about overwhelming the audience with extreme gruesomeness. Often, these games feel so incredibly edgy and transgressive because of other things than just lots of red pixels on the screen. Ironically, this is best summed up by the British film censors when they mentioned that one of the reasons why they tried to ban “Manhunt 2” in 2007 was because of its “unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone“.
And this is the perfect description of what sets an edgy horror game apart from just an ultra-gruesome horror game. Edgy horror games disturb the player through their general attitude, mood and atmosphere more than anything else. Whether it is a completely nihilistic, cruel and/or bleak worldview or even just an attitude of “literally no subject or theme is off-limits”, these games are as much about psychological horror as they are about shock value.
For example, “Outlast” (2013) is set in a semi-abandoned mental hospital where strange and cruel experiments have taken place. Although it certainly tries to shock the player with lots of ultra-gruesome background details and frantic chase sequences, the game’s overall mood and atmosphere was also one of the many things that quite literally scared me away from it when I tried to play it last year. You play as an unarmed reporter who is completely alone in a strange and hostile place filled with creepy characters and vicious foes. There is little to no humour or Hollywood-like spectacle in this game. It’s just unrelenting grimness and extreme heart-pounding suspense.
Earlier, I mentioned that “The Cat Lady” (2012) is technically more of a psychological horror game than anything else. And this is another example of what sets an “edgy” horror game apart from just an ultra-gruesome or “slasher movie” type horror game. Yes, the game’s plot takes influence from the slasher genre and also includes numerous gory moments too, but – even from the very first moment of the game – it focuses on some extremely bleak themes and subject matter. Although this is balanced out slightly via an extremely cynical sense of humour, this is a game that will unsettle you as much as it does because of the disturbing topics that it focuses on and dares to include in a game. Even if it didn’t contain a single red pixel, this would still be an incredibly disturbing horror game just from the atmosphere, writing and subject matter alone.
And this is one of the most amusing paradoxes of “edgy” horror games. In order to actually feel like something genuinely edgy, these games can’t just rely on immature shock value. Instead, they actually have to take a genuinely mature attitude towards storytelling, characters and atmosphere. These are games that just focus on telling the stories they want to tell without fear of limitations or censorship. And, again, they are much closer to the psychological horror genre than anything else.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂