S1E34 - Horror - “And then BAM! A cat jumps out of a cabinet!”

Horror!


In this episode:


It’s October! And you know what that means? That’s right,
geeks...HORROR! You see,Void thinks horror is dumb and boring.
Beej thinks it’s awesome. Is the Beejmeister going to be able to
convince the Voidenator that horror is worth his time?

Beej taught a horror literature class for English majors a
few years back, and he had a wonderful experience with horror in
college because all of his friends loved it. So where he’s coming
is different from where some fans are coming from.

A lot of horror hits on cultural and societal fears, far more
than personal. We can trace the entire 20th century’s outlook
based on what horror media was being produced.

Rarely does horror exist on its i.e. because of its nature.
If the intent is to bring people a primal realization of a
cultural or societal fear so they can deal with it, that’s not a
genre. What you probably think of as “horror” is technically
“gothic romance”

Emotional connection to events. To situations. Not characters
so much. The blank-slate the characters tend to be written that
way purposefully, which is why they’re archetypes. But you do
have lots of writers, however, that tend to focus on people more
than the “hook” of whatever horror element they are writing,
which is why Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill, are so
successful. It’s why The Walking Dead is so successful. The
Walking Dead, for instance, is an ensemble survival drama that
happens to have Zombies. Much like Battlestar Galactica is a
military drama that happens to be in space, but we are horrified
by the events that occur.

Different kinds of horror: Physical and Psychological.
Stephen King has 3 criteria: Horror, terror, gross-out

We use horror as a way to achieve catharsis: We watch this
stuff so we don't have to do it ourselves.

Beej loves slashers and horror comedies. Friday the 13th,
Sleepaway Camp, My Bloody Valentine 3D, Santa’s Slay.

Books like Duma Key and It by Stephen King. Heart-shaped Box
by Joe Hill. Even Odd Thomas and Phantoms by Dean Koontz are good
places to start.

The Secret World is the best horror game out there right now
(to Beej, at least) because it really grabs a lot of the
worldwide horror elements and does them justice. It even grabs
Eastern horror and does them well, which is hard to do in
America. Other games are obvious like Resident Evil, Silent Hill,
Fatal Frame, and Until Dawn.



Weekly Geekery


First of all, we have a way you can support the podcast!
Check out http://www.gameflyoffer.com/geek for your free trial of
Gamefly and get us a few bucks in the process. You’ve heard Void
talk about it for WEEKS, so it’s definitely worth your time.

Void has played tons of Zelda (Wind Waker, Minish Cap,
Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Skyward
Sword) and hates gimmick controls / More Gamefly (Odinsphere,
Mario and Luigi Paper Jam) / Resubbed to Marvel Unlimited / Luke
Cage on Netflix / Gamersplane



Beej is nuts about Halloween Wars / Luke Cage on Netflix /
Pandemic / Twitch Prime (Free Hearthstone Hero Tyrande) / Got the