Horror brings out the best in us. Fear is the #1 survival trait. It enables us to survive in the harshest of environments and situations.
(It also brings out the absolute worst in humanity, but an argument for another time….)
How does horror bring out the best in us? Horror leads us away from it. Without horror, there is no beauty, no peace, no safety. Because of horror, we strive toward good.
After an epidemic, there are efforts to cure. Food tech emerges after periods of famine. Diplomatic relations intensifies after war.
And war, and horror, is at the center of the upcoming video game, The Bunker.
Wales Interactive, Splendy Games, Green Man Gaming, and All 4 Games are jointly developing the psychological horror. The key marketing point is that it’s all live action. All of it. No motion capture or CGI. It has Hollywood actors, including Adam Brown, who was in The Hobbit, and a practical set – a real bunker. All of that could just be a gimmicky marketing thing – and not add to the overall gaming experience – but it is what it is.
What I find more fascinating is the premise:
1) Nuclear apocalypse in the UK
2) Citizens in a bunker
3) Scary happens in the bunker.
What kind of scary? That’s the mystery, and the trailer’s tease.
Doesn’t look like any monsters (other than what’s inside all of us, perhaps).
Will there be redeeming qualities? Good that rises from evil? Or just a lot of dead bodies?
Psychological horror tells us something about ourselves, especially in the face of fear and evil. What will The Bunker show us?
The Bunker will be out second half of 2016.