Nothing gives more of a thrill than the anticipation of a jumpscare, waiting in tension as Casey Becker entertains the creepy, anonymous caller. The shiver when the caller says he wants to know who he’s looking at, and then the chills when she is thrown onto the ground by Ghostface. However, none of the scares can make up for the utter frustration you feel when Casey Becker stays on the call with Ghostface instead of hanging up, calling the cops, and then hiding in a room with a ton of knives.

Alas, this is the inescapable error of all horror media, and the greatest trial of all horror writers. Whether it is in the form of film, comics, or books, and no matter how hard you try to make an intelligent, quick-witted character, you will always have some consumer saying that the character was stupid and their problems could’ve easily been solved by doing x, y, and z.

But this is precisely where horror games stand apart. Unlike passive forms of horror where you can only observe the story unfold, games demand your participation. Within horror games, you are the protagonist. It is your decisions that canlead to your demise or save your life. It makes it a million times more compelling. The threats aren’t in some far-off world, it’s right in front of you and you’re walking through it. It makes it all the more real, and thus much more scary, too.  

In Amnesia: The Bunker, a survival horror game released in 2023, the player is a French World War II soldier stuck in a collapsed bunker with an ominous, dangerous beast. Throughout the game, the player must complete puzzles and challenges in order to escape the bunker, all while being unable to directly confront the Beast, who overpowers them in all regards. However, there are many different ways to play the game. While there are certain “checkpoints” of the story and stages the player will inevitably reach to finish the game, the journey will differ player to player. Whether it be slow playstyle, hiding from the Beast at every corner, or fast-paced, making loud noises that attract the Beast but using weapons to deter it from ever catching the player.

Oftentimes, it’s a mix of both styles. By doing this, the player is not only immersed within the world but has active control in doing what they think would be best in the situation, and then watching it fail or succeed. This makes seeing a character death infinitely less aggravating than when you see Tatum from the original Scream attempt to escape through a cat door for no other reason than to give the director an excuse to have a scary death scene that, ultimately,takes you out of the experience. However, the gameplay in Amnesia: The Bunker allows the player to be the reason they win or lose, resulting in either satisfaction or understandable regret. 

So, this year, instead of binging the same, boring slasher films or scary movies that just aren’t scary, play a video game and become the horror protagonist.