Editorials
[Horror Declassified] A Look at Fixed Camera Angles
Welcome to Horror Declassified — here we’ll be examining mechanics, tropes and design philosophies that are common in the horror genre. Have something you’d like covered? Send us an email.
Written by Matthew Ritter, @matthewmritter
Last time we looked at tank controls, and this time we’re going to look at tank controls’ weird sister, fixed camera angles. You often saw, and still occasionally see these two in tandem.
I could start again with Alone in the Dark, but the issue of fixed camera angles predates 3D games. It’s a problem that has faced game designers from the very beginning. Pong could be seen as a fixed camera angle game. Joust, another early classic, takes place on a single fixed screen. The original Mario Brothers had a similar format. Then you have games like Pitfall and Defender. Suddenly, scrolling is happening. The world is bigger and things can happen left, or right beyond the edges of what we see!
Then there’s Prince of Persia, where the world is large but made up of many different static screens. Or Super Mario brothers, which has lots of scrolling levels but each one is cut by static endings and beginnings. Much as would happen later, almost every game switched to a free roaming camera that followed the player and only used static fixed cameras when it was dramatically appropriate, often in boss fights.
When 3D came around there were lots of different choices in how to display games, and what we’re looking at is Horror games, and horror perhaps more then any other genre depended on atmosphere. Alone in the Dark went with pre-rendered backgrounds to look as snazzy and moody as possible, and used 3D models to take advantage of being able to have a character model move around in a 3D space seamlessly. The fixed camera angles were necessary for the pre-rendered backgrounds to work.
This was then continued by the Resident Evil series, Dino Crisis, and a myriad other games. The golden age of the “3D game with static camera angles” was from about 1995 until 2005. It’s hard to deny that it isn’t a moody and cinematic way to set up a game’s visuals. A shot from below can make a character seem large, or the monster chasing them seem gigantic. A camera angle that focuses on a window or a specific part of the room can foreshadow what might be coming, or lurking nearby, and build a sense of dread. Shots from above can give the player a feeling of helplessness. The lack of control over the camera causes greater feelings of anxiety as well.
So why has this almost completely been replaced by a camera that follows the player character, and static camera angles are reserved almost exclusively for cinematics?
The beginning of the end was March 4, 2000. This marked the release of the PS2 and with it a massive jump in hardware that removed many of the technical reasons for fixed camera angles in games. On top of that, there were the players.
That feeling of greater anxiety over not being able to control the camera? Players often found it frustrating. Especially in games with more action and combat, where stepping back a few feet might switch the camera to a new angle and make it so the monster was no longer visible, and they‘re killed thanks to this ‘moody’ camera shift.
Few players like to feel helpless in such a way that is entirely based on the game mechanics. So, the technique faded. The stronger emphasis on fast-paced combat and first person gameplay didn’t help much either.
This does not mean fixed camera angles have no place in games. Adventure games with little or no combat, that are purely about story and character choices seem ideal as the moody camera angles can be used without hindering the player. The truth is, fixed camera angles were more of an affectation of technology. Today when they are used it is often sparingly, or included with more mobile cameras. It still has its place, but in the same way it would be rare for a movie to insist on having static shots with no camera movement, games are loath to do the same.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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