Dark Reflections: Horror Games and Mirror Neurons
Dead Space, Image via CHANxGG; Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
Mirror neurons are pretty spooky. Without getting too into the weeds of neuroscience, mirror neurons are responsible for our ability to engage with storytelling; they fire when we observe someone else’s actions or behavior. If you see someone smiling, your brain tells you to smile, and in most cases, you do. It’s basically witchcraft, and the best authors, screenwriters, and other yarn spinners know how to manipulate the hell out of this reflex, taking you on a journey outside of yourself, while also somehow deeply connecting with your individual experience as a human.
I bring up mirror neurons to talk about video games, specifically those that are designed to scare us for fun. I’ve been playing horror games since I was a kid, starting with Resident Evil and Silent Hill on the original PlayStation back in ‘99. Similar to other mediums for scary stories, horror games have more or less always caused me great anxiety and tremendous joy at the same time. Why would someone voluntarily throw themselves into a world where they have to shoot decaying, bloody zombies that are trying to grab them and eat their face? It’s gotta be different for every gamer that enjoys such a thing. I’m not a particularly violent or aggressive person, but certainly experiencing these outlandish tales and taking out simulated monsters is a healthy outlet for anger to some extent. In general, I like transporting myself from this world to another through video games as a way to relax (despite how stressful the Dead Space remake has been for me lately) and for entertainment—like reading a book or watching a movie. Chances are that sounds a little obvious, and likely you can immediately relate to some version of needing a distraction.
I mentioned “the Dead Space remake,” and for the unfamiliar, I’m referring to the 2023 re-release of a game that originally came out in 2008. To summarize the story badly but briefly, you play as a spaceship repairman trying to fix a spaceship that is full of gruesome, terrifying alien nightmares called Necromorphs. You have laser tools that you use to shoot off the aliens’ limbs before they cut you up like steak. If you’re curious but not typically into video games, you can always look up YouTube or Twitch videos of streamers playing it to see what it’s all about. Pretty wild stuff.
I’ve been playing the game like I play most games, headphones on and with the room as dark as possible. Do I start Discord even though none of my friends are online just to have my camera on so I can see behind me while I play? Maybe, maybe not. All the same, I intentionally create an environment where I’m as focused on the game as I can be. For horror games, this means my heart rate is up and I’m in a variant of the fight or flight state most of the time. The Necromorphs aren’t actually in front of me trying to rip me in half with their gigantic, freaky sharp alien limbs, but experiencing something like that in this way can still cause true feelings of fear and genuine physical responses as if there were an actual threat. As I understand it, that’s the work of mirror neurons and the brain’s wacky ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes.
In my opinion, there also has to be some level of mechanical discomfort for games to be truly hair-raising. An example of this is how the camera can or can’t be adjusted while playing the game. Some games restrict the player’s ability to see their digital surroundings with a technique called Dutch angles. These camera angles are used in movies as well and are designed to add tension to a scene. I find that this effect is compounded when employed in a video game because the player is controlling an avatar and the actions they take. Most 3D, story-driven games use a first-person or third-person perspective where the camera can be controlled to provide a 360-degree view of the character. Resident Evil and Silent Hill are notable titles that are in third-person, but the camera can’t be controlled at all. The player can only move their character through the static scene, listening to the sounds of zombies groaning and growling just out of sight. It can be a somewhat frustrating experience as an adult, but I do remember how much it scared my younger self to play those games. Modern gaming has innovated and become more realistic, so fixed-perspective games are not as common these days. The gameplay has to be faster and more fluid for the players who want to hack, slash, and shoot through hordes of monsters, it seems. More recent horror games like Dead Space, Outlast, Alan Wake, and Dead by Daylight all take different approaches to making the player uncomfortable in the environment. Some games leave players to navigate mostly in the dark, without any conventional weapons, or with only their ability to run and hide to save them from digital death.
Are you curious about the Dead Space universe but video games aren’t your thing? Check out the animated prequel to the game using our affiliate link at Movies Unlimited!
I think that video games in particular can cause our mind’s mirror to run wild and place us right in the middle of the horrific scenes they depict. Games combine audio, visuals, and real-time interaction with the virtual experience. Stories are simply read and perhaps it takes a little more work on the side of the author to provide a significantly bone-chilling experience. Movies are a step up from there regarding accessibility; even if someone has trouble imagining the words from a book in their head, watching a movie captures our primary senses and gets us there easily. But with a controller or keyboard and mouse at your fingertips, you are putting yourself as close to the story as you can be, where your own decisions and abilities can help you keep the darkness at bay. It’s a unique way to engage with Story (capitalized to refer to that universal instinct in all of us to listen to and empathize with a good story, for better or worse) and it allows those of us with relatively quiet lives to experience some contained chaos and gore in a recreational way.
Article written by Brandon Allison
Brandon Allison is a marketer by day and a writer, musician, and gamer by night. For better or worse, he grew up consuming horror stories in all available mediums, falling into a lifelong love affair with all things dark and spooky. IG: @actually_brandon
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