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13 Days of Horror, Day 5: A Look Through the Lense
There are many ways to really scare a player but possibly the most effective strategy was used by Fatal Frame. When Resident Evil had us fighting against waves of foes with limited ammo and Silent Hill was trying to get in our heads with disturbing imagery, Fatal Frame was forcing players to really get up close and personal with their foes.
Some of the scariest moments I’ve had in a game came from my time with Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, my favorite game in the series. This game took what its predecessor did and made it better in every conceivable way: the story and the characters (ghosts) you meet are memorable, the fights intense, and the world was incredibly creepy. This is my look back at one of the most terrifying franchises of all time: Fatal Frame. Crimson Butterfly introduced me to the series and because I enjoyed it so much I went back and played the first as well. I was so used to fighting with guns, pipes, or anything else I could find that having to defend myself against hordes of angry spirits with nothing but a camera made Fatal Frame an excruciatingly intense game to play. But the real genius came when I discovered the only way to maximize the damage caused by the camera was to wait for the ghost to get deep into my personal bubble so I could cause a Fatal Frame and possibly instantly kill the creature.
Unlike Resident Evil, the enemies here have backstories that you get to know before (or while) you fight them. Sometimes their stories are sad, other times they only make your desire to vanquish them even stronger. Story-wise, the Fatal Frame series is possibly the best of the genre as every game in the series (with the possible exception of the most recent game, which I’ve never played) and the characters are actually people you care about. In Crimson Butterfly, I wanted to help Mio find her twin sister Mayu, and that made the experience exponentially more potent.
The atmosphere, one of the most important elements in a horror game, has always been phenomenally eerie and foreboding. Fatal Frame II’s long lost ancient village or the original’s Himuro Mansion are easily two of the most haunting locations I’ve explored in a video game to date, rivaling even the foggy town of Silent Hill.
The only sad thing about the series is its unavailability outside of Japan (and on the Wii, no less). With the fourth installment being exclusive to the Land of the Rising Sun and the possibility of the fifth following the same path I’m afraid this franchise might fade away.
So, assuming you’ve played one of the Fatal Frame games; what’s your most memorable moment? Mine would probably be the fight with the woman with the broken neck. I’ll never forget making it to the bottom of that large winding staircase only to hear a loud scream followed by the body of a woman falling to the floor in front of me. That practically caused me to shit out my spine.
In case you missed the rest of the series, here’s a quick recap:
Day 1, A Resident Evil Retrospective
Day 2, A Silent Hill Retrospective
Day 3, What Do You Fear?
Day 4, The Four Scariest Kids in Gaming
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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