Editorials
Pushing the Envelope of Taste: The Making of ‘Postal 2’
Back in the early days of his videogame career, founder of Running with Scissors Vince Desi was in the business of producing family-friendly titles from licenses such as Hanna Barbera, Disney and Sesame Street. Seeing his time on more family-centric titles as “liberating”, in the late 90’s his content all changed with the arrival of Postal, the isometric shooter that ultimately gained the attention of the FBI and was lambasted by the American media for its depiction of violence. Once this backlash was behind them Running with Scissors went even further for its sequel and created a game in which, to name a few controversial elements, allowed the player to urinate on people, use a live cat as a silencer, decapitate, stab and burn civilians and roam the streets armed to the teeth with firepower and unleash it upon the unsuspecting public. Then again, that was all optional…
To many gamers and non-gamers who have never played it, Postal 2 is often seen as a tactless excuse to cause mayhem, but Postal 2, Running with Scissors and Desi himself need to be given more credit. Postal 2 is pure satire, a hilarious and over-the-top playground for the player to toy around with as to how they see fit. When it came to the changeup in comedic tone compared to the original Postal’s dark atmosphere Desi says, “Going with a First-Person Shooter gave us much more freedom to allow the character/player really experience a wider range of activities, and the insanity just naturally followed. During development, it just took off into a new wildly comical direction. For example, one day we went from liquid physics to pour gasoline to letting the player piss anywhere. Things like the Cat Silencer also came from a Running with Scissors member who loves cats. The one thing that has always been a part of how we design and develop is to keep in mind that it’s a game, and games are supposed to be fun to play. For me, one of the things I’m most proud of about Postal is that it’s fun and FUNNY to play. I’m always amazed at watching people play Postal and seeing their own reactions”.
Postal 2 places you in the shoes of the Postal Dude, a crass guy with a lame goatee in a long leather jacket who lives in a trailer park. The player is given many goals throughout the game, but most of them are rather mundane, including such thrilling missions as buying milk at the local convenience store and return a book to the Library. Postal 2’s missions are mundane by design, with all killing, maiming, and fun within the game being dictated by the players own actions. In speaking about this approach to gameplay Desi says, “It’s simple, we just wanted to give the player a chance to have fun doing nothing ha! I’m serious, in its own way Postal 2 is like Seinfeld; it’s about doing everyday normal things and simply experiencing everything that could go wrong, just like in real life. Hallways and zombies get boring real fast, so for us, it was important to give the player CHOICE, which includes just exploring levels, playing as you choose, be it violently or passive”. In fact, the level of choice and violence in Postal 2 even extends to the interacting with the Running with Scissors team themselves. During a mission in which the Postal Dude needs to get signatures for a petition against violence in gaming, the player can visit the Running with Scissors office itself, complete with the entire dev team for your much-needed urinating/shooting practice. Desi remarks, “I got tons of emails from fans saying they loved pissing on me! Thank God for video games!”.
Although Desi and Running with Scissors are happy to lampoon every facet of society, there is one area in which even Desi himself wants to steer clear from. “We have one line we don’t cross, and that’s kids”, Desi says. “We were falsely accused in the original of shooting kids by an idiot reporter from the Wall Street Jerkoff News. He never played the game and heard there were kids so he wrote this horrible bullshit story. Fact is we tried to send a message in the original by not allowing your weapons to work against kids and you got arrested, but no one reported it that way.”
One addition to Postal 2 that stands out is the inclusion of Diff’rent Strokes actor Gary Coleman. Coleman plays himself in Postal 2, and upon meeting him at a book signing, it’s not long until Coleman is engaged in a hilarious shootout with the Police, with the Postal Dude being caught in the crossfire. Coleman relished the idea of being in a video game, and viewed the violence within Postal 2 in a very level-headed manner. Desi remembers Coleman very fondly and remarks, “Gary is the #1 child star in TV history. We had this crazy idea how it would be so cool to have him in the game, so I called him. He was great, polite and funny. Next thing I was at the airport picking him up and its been an honor ever since. He loved the concept and just wanted a big gun ha! We’d go out with girls and shooting real guns, the guy was a true pisser, and very intelligent. Gary and I became good friends and it was very sad when he passed. He was a great human being.”
Looking back at Postal 2 and the history of Running with Scissors thus far the company, and namely Desi himself, are clearly in the business of doing what they want, pushing the boundaries of taste in the pursuit of humour and slaying every sacred cow they can get in the crosshairs of their Cat Silencer. Though some gamers may not hold Running with Scissors in high esteem, I see them as almost like the Lenny Bruce of the gaming world; Shocking, controversial and keenly interested in poking and prodding at what makes us tick, but wholly and undoubtedly necessary. In a world where modern game developers are perhaps too afraid to take risks and be controversial, Desi perfectly sums up his take on Postal 2. He says, “I think everyone has a bit of an anarchist element in their personality, and in creative mediums like games, or music, film or writing, an opportunity presents itself to let this characteristic out. After all the fake news bullshit we endured, I learned a lot of politics and corporate hypocrisy. Postal 2 became the perfect vehicle to express all our frustrations. Best thing is I’ve received endless “thank you” messages from fans all over the world who felt great feelings of relief from playing Postal 2”.
After Postal 2 came Postal 3, a failed title that even some hardcore Running with Scissors fans didn’t enjoy. Desi speaks about this misstep in saying, “Sadly, Postal 3 was a missed opportunity in so many ways. Everyone suffered the loss, the publisher and us, and worst of all the fans. I have no regrets that we planned to make a great game together, and I sure as hell have no regrets that we had to walk away and disown the ‘finished’ product. Premature publishing always results in a wasted load.”
However, with that in mind, perhaps the gaming world needs the Molotov cocktail of a new Postal title to push the boundaries a little, something that replicates what Postal 2 brought to the table. Desi keeps his cards close to his chest for now but says, “Get ready, it’s coming, we’re working on it now, fully devoted to taking it to the next level!”. I think I speak for a sizeable chunk of gamers out there when I say now, more than ever, we need this.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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