Editorials
Exploring the Horror in ‘Undertale’
Note: minor spoilers ahead. I won’t ruin major plot elements.
If you have played Undertale (if you didn’t, please stop reading right now and go play it), you may have come through some interesting feelings. It can be a cheerful journey most of the time, with likable characters and silly jokes here and there, even when the sense of humor gets a bit dark. Your lovely time with your “stepmother” or that unforgettable date with the one and only Papyrus are some of the sweetest times you’ll have. Laughs and smiles will be a common situation during your time with Undertale. However, I can’t deny there was something “itching” in my brain the whole time, a continuing state of anxiety. I found horror in this adventure, and I want to show it to you.
Don’t get me wrong. There aren’t scare jumps or a “frightening” story in Undertale. You won’t necessarily feel fear while you play it, maybe the complete opposite. Nevertheless, I felt nervous and aghast with some specific scenes and with what is under this tale of the last war between humans and monsters. These dark little secrets (who are we really?), the missing pieces that we will try to find and connect in our walkthrough(s). You can sense the fear of the Unknown in these pixelated lands, in whoever you’ll find in your way and the lack of knowing what you should expect.
Take the first “enemy” you encounter, for example. It’s a smiling and speaking flower. A quite cute one if you ask me, and I wanted to have a charming conversation with it because it seemed like a cool fella. My expectations were subverted from the beginning of the journey when this rude piece of leaves deceived me then attacked me. Not only it almost broke my heart (in a literal way, because in Undertale you protect your heart from the enemies’ moves), but it spat these words with a horrendous beam: “You idiot. In this world, it’s kill or BE killed. Die”.
Luckily enough, a human-like goat named Toriel helped me and later she would take the place of a mother. A remarkable one, that would teach me the basics of the game and some lore, all while taking good care of my human character. But again… my expectations would be subverted when I tried to exit the Ruins (the starting location in the adventure) and she would attack me. My own new stepmother, someone who just seemed impossible to do harm. And she’s an incredible spellcaster; the enemies I fought before were a joke in comparison.
In Undertale you can attack or spare the lives of the creatures you find along the way, and this will affect the journey and the ending you get (there are three possible endings depending on how you’ve treated enemies). When you fight bosses, this will change possible outcomes, if they live or die, their reactions and how other characters will behave with you. However, this doesn’t change the fact that our character’s own “mother” tried to murder us. She sure had her -understandable- reasons, but we are still talking about parricide here. Are we still going to have mercy with every creature we battle, considering they could stab our back in the end?
This anxious feeling of mine will appear with almost every character we meet. Some of them may change their thoughts towards us and others will be just an enigmatic personality with hidden desires, like Sans. Even the most inconsequential NPCs have an existential crisis and/or nihilism vibes around them: “Someday, I’d like to climb this mountain we’re all buried under”. “All that pressure to succeed… really got to her…”. “Everyone is always laughing and cracking jokes, trying to forget our modern crises… We can’t do anything, so why be morose about it?”. It was hard for me to feel safe in this treacherous environment, not to feel in danger around every corner. Of course, there will be genuinely good creatures, that will help us along with our quest and wish us good. But trust is a delicate matter when we are a stranger in a strange land and most of the natives try to kill or at least deceive us. It’s hard to form bonds with people when they can do harm when we least expect it. People can be pretty dangerous. Like in real life, isn’t it?
The last aspect I want to scare (tell) you about is how Undertale plays with your mind, not only with the creatures and the situations you have to face, but with the scenery. The map design in this title is fabulous, full of carefulness and attention to detail without a doubt. Despite the artistic choice and the inner-beauty of it (you’ll love it if you like games made in GameMaker), it has meaning. The different kinds of scenarios we will walk over vary from simple chunks of lands to labyrinthine laboratories. There is a constant “trick” between what is shown and what isn’t in these places. The use of darkness, in places where we can actually avoid any possibility of light and have our screen pure black. The use of excessive light, in locations, that present “magic” transitions and tense situations. It doesn’t matter that we have a cell phone and some characters will contact us from time to time (one of them will harass us, honestly). We can feel alone in this journey, maybe even in this whole existence in this odd universe, and it looks like there isn’t much we can do about it.
Undertale is a unique experience I just recently had. I laughed out loud with some corny jokes and hilarious moments, and I felt emotional with other situations. Specific characters grew on me and they became some of my most loved cast in quite some time. However, the most relevant sensation I got from this game was how it dug into my nerves, and the ever-present thought of “something is wrong and I’m being lied every moment”. The eventual macabre art such as the final boss design didn’t help much.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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