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[Ghosts Of Gaming Past] A Review Of ‘Fatal Frame II’
Written by T. Blake Braddy, @blakebraddy
‘Creepy’ is an altogether difficult aesthetic to pull off in a horror game. What is easily evoked in other mediums, like movies and books, can end up coming off as corny, misdirected, or some weird combination of the two when applied to video games. Instead of chewing your nails down to the quick, you might be compelled to chuckle at what the game devs think is frightening.
That’s why the Fatal Frame series is such a welcome addition to horror gaming. It does what a lot of other games try to do, but without the kind of strained effort of trying to ‘look’ overwhelmingly scary. It evokes that sincerely unsettling experience through simply providing the audience with a compelling premise, haunting visuals, and controls that enhance rather than ruin the overall mood of the game.
Given that ten years have elapsed since the game’s release, however, it’s easy to wonder how this widely-lauded sequel holds up. I’ll spare you the tension: it’s still a really great game.
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly for the PS2 picks up where the first game left off, though not in the way you’d think. The story is completely different, but it is a strange philosophical sequel, and Project Zero, the game’s developers, managed to take the best aspects of the first game and ratchet them to a nearly perfect tautness. The first game was no slouch, but the fact is that with the second game, Project Zero solidified the Fatal Frame series as one of the best in the survival horror genre.
You play (mostly) as Mio Amakura, who, along with her twin sister Mayu, serves as the game’s protagonist. Mio and Mayu are not exploring haunted Himuro Mansion but The Lost Village, where the sorts of violent travesties you’d expect to have happened in something called The Lost Village have actually happened. The game keeps the occultish vibe this time around, as well, but the effect of the story is more dramatically unsettling. It seems to have grown up even by the standards of the first game, which felt quite mature in its execution.
The ‘twin’ theme was not lost on the developers, either, and references to pairs pervade the game. You’ll often find yourself fighting more than a single enemy at a time, for example, and even the landscape seems to be littered with parallel paths and pairings of rooms or houses.
Additionally, if the first game somewhat vaguely revolved around familial bonds, this one can’t seem to avoid them. Of course, the idea of siblings is key here, but without revealing too much, suffice it to say that there are other, equally disturbing kinds of relationships sprinkled throughout Fatal Frame II.
Beyond the thematic concerns, Crimson Butterfly looks better, and it is also more self-consciously cinematic, to boot. It could almost serve as a non-canonical sequel to the Ringu movies, or some other J-Horror franchise. The cut scenes exist as small, artistic showcases, rather than being mere expository sequences, as the ones in the first game unfortunately tended to be. You get a sense from watching them that the developers were reaching for something genuine here, rather than just rehashing the past.
The amount of variation in both environment and combat is also something that sets this game apart from the first installation. In Fatal Frame II, you will not be confined to a single house but will traverse a vast village, including the surrounding areas. You will do some backtracking, but it isn’t quite so noticeably tedious this time around, and though you will undoubtedly get lost, it feels more tied to the experience, rather than being the result of poor design choices. Doors are strategically locked to force the paths you take, yes, but the effect is that the world takes on a hair-raising surrealism, making you question where you’re actually supposed to go. It’s a great way to enhance tension, and it keeps players perpetually off-balance.
As far as the combat goes, the devs seemed to have paid attention to the criticism leveled at the first game. The more frustrating aspects of the combat, both the camera and the enemies, have been fixed. It is still the same combat, so there is a modicum of clumsiness existent, but the Camera Obscura seems to handle better this time around, and the types of enemies and their attacks are much more varied. For example, some enemies can’t be injured until they show their faces, while others are shielded from your attacks until they are within range. This keeps your fights from feeling like obligatory, random encounters, which is definitely appreciated.
Not only that, but through exploring the tattered old ruins of what must have been a fantastic place, players will face a whole bevy of new ghost types, from tag-happy children to old men of varying types and women with broken necks. There is just something different about the whole approach to the enemies and the combat that makes this game feel like an entire step forward.
Additionally, the points system has been enhanced so that the totals don’t feel entirely arbitrary. It seemed as though the first game allowed for players to level their cameras up, but there wasn’t enough combat to really make significant changes to their cameras, but the second game gives players enough points and Spirit Stones to play around with the camera’s configuration from the get-go. Being able to upgrade the camera early and often is just another minor touch that adds so much to an already-incredible experience.
If there is a complaint about Fatal Frame II, it has to do with having a sister tag along for some of the adventure. She doesn’t really add anything to the game, other than companionship – not that she really adds any of that, either – and more often than not she gets in the way. Only a few of the puzzles require two people, a disappointment considering the possibilities. It was a design choice they committed to in spirit but not in execution, so had they used it to a greater effect, occasionally having Mayu get in the way during a battle would be almost no problem at all.
The changes made to the second game in the series take it from a curious cult classic that could have easily been forgotten to an exemplary gem of the genre. This series could have easily rested on a tired stereotype, but instead the developers strove to do something with the material, and as a result they created something wholly engrossing in a weird and unsettling sort of way.
The Final Word: If you are interested in J-Horror to any measurable degree, or if you – like me – missed these games upon initial release, then you should give Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly a once-over. It doesn’t feel as cripplingly dated as some other early-gen stuff for the PS2, and it does some really interesting things with mood and combat that others either couldn’t replicate or chose to ignore.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Terrifier 3’: Filming Has Wrapped on Damien Leone’s Christmas Slasher Sequel!
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