Blood in video games, however, is different. Perhaps it’s because I don’t associate myself with the non-player characters in video games, so I don’t see blood and think “that could be me.” I can deal with the the splattered, pixelated brains, the simple ragdoll physics of a corpse hitting the ground easier than I can deal with the sight of red corn syrup flowing out of the top of an actor’s head. There is no uncanny valley with gore: there is either believable gore, as in movies, or you can not associate with the characters strongly enough to empathize, and feel the cracked bones and spurting blood as if it were your own. So I avoid gore in movies, and relish it in video games.
However, even I have seen enough horror movies to know that one thing always, always happens.
We are halfway through the movie. There is definitely, definitely something wrong. Something horrifically wrong. Two or more people are dead. The survivors know that the killer/mass of zombies/chupacabre/gay vampire is out there, waiting for them. “What is that thing?” someone asks. And then something weird happens.
Adam Dorsey
Curtis Retherford
