Editorials
Remembering ‘Amnesia: The Dark Descent’
On September 8, 2010, Swedish developer Frictional Games gave us a uniquely harrowing experience that is still, even five years later, considered to be one of the scariest video games of all time. With the patience of a serial killer stalking his prey, it took three Penumbra games to build up to the nightmarish masterpiece that is Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Amnesia is a considerably more clever game than the eponymous plot device it employed to make sure the player was always as lost and bewildered as its mentally diminished lead, Daniel.
With a slow-burn narrative that emphasized exploration, puzzle-solving and hiding inside closets or behind the door you barricaded by throwing everything in the room at it, it feels like a found footage horror movie in the making. Without its influence, actual found footage games like Outlast and Slender might not exist.
Every system, mechanic and smart idea is connected, like cogs in a machine. So while the insanity system tends to hog all the attention, Daniel’s fragile psyche isn’t singularly responsible for this game’s success. Take Daniel’s character, or lack thereof, for instance. There’s not much going on there, and that actually makes it scarier.
The Dead Space series did this, too. In the original, Isaac Clarke had about as much personality as the skeleton that always stared at me in health class. It wasn’t until the sequel took the time to flesh out his character that he felt more like a human being. This didn’t have a negative impact, but it did signal a dramatic shift in the series’ pacing.
Dead Space and its sequel are comparable to the first two Aliens films. They’re both scary, but the first was more adept at scaring the blue out of my jeans, and that’s because it’s so much easier to project yourself onto a blank canvas than it is on one that’s been partially filled out. With Amnesia, Frictional turned guiding an amnesiac avatar through a hallway made of painted polygons into an extension of the player.
Clever scare tactics can carry a mediocre horror film until the credits start rolling. It’s not as useful to game developers, who must also possess a certain amount of technical mastery to craft something that won’t be forgotten as soon as the next scary game arrives.
Amnesia treats its players like rats in a maze. The goal is to use the limited sources of light to navigate the labyrinthine series of stone chambers inhabited by unkillable monstrosities that wander about seeking people-shaped nourishment to take back to their bone nests, I’m guessing, so they can feed their hellish offspring baby bird-style.
A few tweaks to that last paragraph and it could describe a bunch of games, many of which aren’t worth honoring five years after their release. Amnesia earned its legacy by striking a balance between familiar staples of the genre — a helpless character lost in a hostile world with limited resources — with its more unconventional ideas.
Amnesia works so well because it is more than the sum of its parts. It’s not a complex game, and that streamlined approach to its design is why it’s so easy to play, enjoyable to watch, and impossible to forget.
Your move, SOMA.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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