Editorials
‘The Last of Us Part II’ Has Its True Horror In Its Human Moments
The Last of Us Part II is a horror game, at least… technically. It has certain horror hallmarks: zombie outbreak (cordyceps infection but let’s not quibble), monsters, post-apocalyptic setting, lots of blood and gore. But it never quite felt like that kind of horror for me. It’s horror in the same way Get Out or Midsommar are horror movies: horror’s the box that makes the most sense, but doesn’t even come close to capturing the essence. Certainly, there are a lot of high octane traditional horror sequences in the game, but they never really scared me. When I stared at The Last Us Part II’s human heart though, there were times when I was petrified.
Let’s start right at the end, which means there are SPOILERS from here on out.
After some more blockbuster boss battles against Bloaters, hoard waves, and the abominable Rat King, your final two boss battles mirror each other. In the first, you play as Abby trying to kill Ellie, and in the second you are Ellie trying to kill Abby. The Rat King was not real, but this, this was something raw and true. Controversial as it may be, I liked both of these characters, and wanted both to succeed in their quests. Considering that meant each of them killing the other, I knew it was impossible, and therefore every stealthy footstep I crept as Abby had my heart thumping, worrying that the next time I leapt out on Ellie, I would kill the character who had meant so much to me since I met her back in 2013. Likewise, when the roles were flipped, my breath was held, my knuckles were white-tight, as my tired Ellie slashed wildly at Abby. I knew each swipe could mean the end for one of the most interesting and complex characters I’d encountered in all my years of gaming.
With the Rat King, there was no such tension. If Abby died there, it was game over, start again, try a different tactic. It never really scared me, because death only meant losing the game. Here, death meant losing a friend. I was willing Ellie, screaming in my head and whispering with my mouth, to spare Abby, to let her and Lev continue in their quest.
Somehow, thankfully, Ellie heard me, and that meant both characters could continue to live, though exactly what sort of life Ellie has left remains ambiguous.
These two battles form the slices of bread around perhaps the game’s scariest moment too. In her peaceful life on the farm, Ellie is feeding the lambs with her son JJ when something falls in the barn and lands with a clang. After a nightmarish flashback, we see Ellie scrunched up in the dark, JJ crying, until Dina comes and rescues her. This is the real consequence of The Last Of Us Part II. Not the death of Joel or Jesse or Mel or Owen, not the wounds Ellie suffers, and not the endless times she got her throat ripped out because I couldn’t take out the Clickers fast enough. They’re all only a reality in Ellie’s world; a world of cordyceps infections, a world I will never live in. I don’t fear them, because I will never know them. But a panic attack, the feeling that your fear controls you and, worse, stops you from protecting your loved ones, in Ellie’s case baby JJ? That’s real, and heartbreaking, and terrifying.
It’s not just the finale and epilogue which trade on these more human fears, though it’s true that the monster/zombie horror is less prevalent in the final few hours. I wouldn’t count things like Joel’s death in this category. Sad, gory, and unexpected (if unspoiled), certainly. But horror? Not really. Horror reaches inside of your chest, gropes at your organs, makes you feel like your skin and skeleton are slightly off-kilter. Joel’s death didn’t do that for me.
No, the first moment of human horror comes when Ellie’s gas mask cracks, and Dina tries to take off hers so they can share. It’s a moment laced with fear not only because the action would certainly kill Dina, but the death would be for naught as Ellie is already immune. This is the first act of true love (rather than flirtation and romance) between the pair that we see, and it was very nearly Dina’s last. Add to that Dina’s pregnancy and the fact Ellie had tried to confess her immunity previously but had it fall on deaf ears, and this becomes a tragedy wrapped up in very human horror.
These human horror moments perhaps don’t hit the mark every time; when the game asks you to ‘press square to bash in Nora’s skull’, I didn’t feel anything. Perhaps because I didn’t fully sympathize with Ellie’s reasoning, or perhaps because the game asked you to push the button to do it – yet left you no other resolution – that what was clearly designed to be a human horror moment left me feeling… well, not very much at all.
It is rare, in a horror, for every moment to catch everyone in the same way. If ever any horror attempts to, the results feel very lab-grown and inauthentic. Despite the heavy crunch culture and the focus testing Neil Druckmann used for parts of his direction, The Last Of Us Part II’s human horror moments feel incredibly organic. Even the scene with Nora did, despite being a swing and a miss for me personally – though not, unfortunately, for Nora’s skull. The Rat King is a scary monster I can laugh off, but Ellie’s panic attack will stay with me for a long time.
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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