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With today being Halloween, a bunch of the staff here at Rely On Horror thought we’d share with you a few ghost stories of our own. Not literal ghost stories, but rather some of our favorite moments in survival horror and our initial reaction to those moments. Be it undead dobermans crashing through windows or a red pyramid thing stalking you silently throughout the night, there are lot of really iconic moments in the genre. Though no matter how familiar you may be with a particularly fearful instance, not everyone will of course have the same reaction.
Zack Furniss
Fatal Frame (Released December 13, 2001. Published by Tecmo)
I first played Fatal Frame at the tender age of 11. My friend Richard Perez and I had played Resident Evil and a bit of Silent Hill at this point. We were much too young to play games like these, but that wasn’t going to stop us. Both his and my parents were horror fans, so they were willing to let us play. So when I saw Fatal Frame sitting on the Hollywood Video shelf, I was more than slightly intrigued.
Minutes after turning on the PS2, we were sucked into the Himuro Mansion. I think I did most of the playing, though the memories are starting to get a little hazy. The camera obscura gameplay mechanic was exciting, since it took horror in a direction that we hadn’t experienced before. The rogues’ gallery of macabre spirits are still very memorable for me to this day, but one ghost encounter remains fresh in my mind. We entered an old Shinto shrine, and heard a consistent noise. Drip. Drip. Drip. Already on edge, we were hesitant to discover the origins of the unnerving sound. Creeping forward at an achingly slow pace, we saw a pool of blood collecting in the middle of the floor. Immediately, we knew what was dripping above us, but couldn’t bring ourselves to look up. After a 15-second pause, we collected ourselves, and finally resolved to raise the camera. We finally did, and saw exactly what we feared.
The break we took after that was longer than 15 seconds.
Kyle Campbell
Silent Hill 3 (Released August 6, 2003. Published by Konami)
Few people will dispute the fact that the late 90’s and early 2000’s was the golden age of survival horror. When the Resident Evil games were seminal releases that stood shoulder to shoulder with other big franchise like Final Fantasy or Tomb Raider. You could read a review of these classic survival horror games and not see someone endlessly spew out angry rhetoric about how terrible tank controls were. I grew up in this golden age of horror and often find myself longing for those days to return, missing late night adventures through digital horror stories. One sleepless night in particular has stuck with me for over a decade after it happened, and involved a little game called Silent Hill 3.
I was extremely excited for Silent Hill 3, so much so that when I learned I was to go on a long road trip with my family around the same time the game released – I hid my PS2 away in my luggage just so I could track down the game and play it in intervals. Finally after a lengthy stop in Edmonton Alberta before we hit the highway back home, I managed to find a copy of the game. After a good 16 hours of driving, we’d finally stopped in a small town called Fort Nelsonfor the night that stands as a sort of halfway point between central Alberta and our destination. Instead of venturing out about the town with the rest of my family, I decided to stay in our hotel room and finally dig into the game I’d so eagerly awaited playing. In a single sitting I had made it through a significant portion of the game, allowing the unsettling nature of the game to enrapture me. The atmosphere of the game was aided by the unfamiliar surroundings of the hotel room we were staying in, with its old world aesthetic.
After some time I came to a particular room in the game that was quite barren. There was a massive mirror on one end of the room opposite the entrance, and a strange rectangular sink beside it. I walked up, examined it, and was greeted with nothing of interest. So I decided I should leave the room–but when I tried I couldn’t, the door was suddenly locked. Then I noticed there was something moving in the mirror besides myself. What looked like tickling bloodstains when through the drain of the sink in the reflection, then made their way through the drain of the actual sink in the room. The whole room was covered in this crimson slithering presence, while the reflection in the mirror remain normal – except for Heather, the player’s character. The reflection of Heather was becoming covered by this darkness as well, then the most insane thing happened that has stuck with me 10 years after the fact: Heather’s reflection no longer mimicked the actions of Heather as any reflection should, instead it just remained still and stared back at me right as Akira Yamaoka’s music swelled up. Then suddenly, Heather cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor… “Game Over”washed across the screen. The whole thing frightened me so much that I immediately turned off the console. Not caring that I had died and lost a bunch of progress, I just wanted that reflection off the screen as it was legitimately unnerving to me.
It was about a week after getting home that I braved the game again, and I was not looking forward to repeating the mirror room experience again. That cold dead expression looking back at me is usually what comes to mind when I look back on those old glory days of horror. Such an overwhelming sense of dread has yet to be matched for me not only in gaming but in all of horror fiction.
Tarrah
Resident Evil 2 (Released January 21, 1998. Published by Capcom)
Of course, Resident Evil 2 seems like such a cop-out. For many people, Resident Evil 2 launched them into the survival horror world, so it’s no surprise that so many claw mercilessly at even the smallest glimmer of hope of a full HD remake. I’ve made it no secret that when I first sat down to play the game, I was terrible at it. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even make it to the Raccoon City Police Station. Hell, I didn’t even make it to the bus. The sight and sound of zombies ripping the flesh from my bones haunted me so much that I couldn’t play the game again for over a year.
Even when playing the game, I was always skittish. If I stepped into a room and heard the shuffle of zombie feet, I’d do that neat 180° NOPE turn and get right the hell out of there. Lickers? Wasn’t having any part of them, Mr. X? Hell no. What forced me to stop playing, again, was in that little control room. Walking along the catwalk to the little control panel, flicking it on and looking at the security cameras. Only to see that hulking figure walking right through the door that I had just come through.
And not having any ammo.
Never forget. Raccoon City ’98.
CJ Melendez
Silent Hill 2 (Released September 24, 2001. Published by Konami)
When people talk about Monica Taylor Horgan’s performance as Mary / Maria in Silent Hill 2, many of them refer to her reading of the letter at the end of the game. The note is a parting wife’s last words to her beloved husband. The contents of the note and Monica’s performance evoke strong emotions from the player. Many players even admit to crying after having listened to it; it’s hard not to. But this note is not the most memorable moment in the game for me. It’s something that happens shortly before the final confrontation that pulls at my heartstrings, leaving an everlasting memory and a lump in my throat.
Soon before James confronts the final boss in the game, a conversation between him and his wife can be heard. The conversation is mostly one sided, though as James is taken back by his wife’s emotions and words. “What do you want, James?” she angrily asks. When James tells her that he brought her flowers, she replies with “I don’t want any damn flowers. Just go home already.” Mary then tells of how she doesn’t deserve flowers, because she’s too disgusting. She then demands that James leaves her alone. Mary goes through a cycle of emotions, starting with anger and ending with the rawest depiction of sadness that I’ve ever heard in a videogame.
“It’d be easier if they just kill me”. Mary’s emotional state quickly moves from anger to self pity and back to anger again when she tells James to leave once more. As inferred by the dialogue, James begins to do just that but the action summons the feelings of despair from Mary’s heart. “Stay with me. Don’t leave me alone. I didn’t mean what I said.” This is when my throat usually begins to get tight and my eyes feel hot. “Tell me I’ll be OK. Tell me I’m not going to die. Help me.” And just like that, I feel horrible.
These few lines of dialogue are so stirring and raw that anyone that anyone that has ever felt these emotions can relate to how Mary feels and imagine themselves in that situation. Despair is a powerful emotion that overwhelms us. Hearing this amazing scene shortly after the game’s revelation moment and before the final confrontation sends players in a whirlwind of emotions, making them question whether James did his best or worth when it came to looking after his departed wife.
My first experience with this moment left me saddened and terrified at the realization that life can be taken from us so easily. I think, had I experienced this moment after knowing love by being in a relationship, it would have had a stronger effect on me. But even without that, this moment in Silent Hill 2 is powerful enough to shake players to their core.
So there you have it, we shared a bunch of our favourite moments in the history of survival horror. We would love to hear your stories as well. Did any of the moments we mentioned affect you in a particularly meaningful way? Please share them in the comments section below!
