{"id":635,"date":"2019-02-22T21:48:21","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T02:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/?p=635"},"modified":"2019-02-22T21:48:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T02:48:21","slug":"comparative-horror-analysis-dying-light-and-black-mirror-men-against-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/2019\/02\/22\/comparative-horror-analysis-dying-light-and-black-mirror-men-against-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparative Horror Analysis: Dying Light and Black Mirror, Men Against Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i> <\/i>The horror genre is an extremely nuanced literary, cinematic, and electronic game genre that has evolved incredibly quickly, literally before our eyes, in the last 40 or so years.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The more recent works of horror are often categorized as postmodern, or late-postmodern horror, and can be defined by a few key characteristics as described by many academics and critics.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Isabel Pinedo, one such academic, lists some of these characteristics in her work, <i>Recreational Terror: Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Her work functions based on five notable points, including \u201cviolent disruption[s] of the everyday world\u2026\u201d and \u201ctransgression[s]\u2026 of boundaries,\u201d (Pinedo, 20).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I will borrow these two, as well as focusing on the role of technology and the implementation of media to analyze and compare two works.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>First, I will take a look at <i>Dying Light<\/i>, a survival horror video game released in 2014 by Techland in conjunction with Warner Bros.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>After providing some introductory information, I will detail some examples in which <i>Dying Light<\/i> can be seen to clearly fit the category of postmodern horror.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Next, I will do the same for <i>Black Mirror<\/i>, season 3, episode 5, <i>Men Against Fire<\/i>, available on Netflix.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Finally, I will compare and contrast some of the major aspects of each \u2018text.\u2019<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We will come to see how these two \u2018texts\u2019 intersect, overlap, and fit the same genre, despite their obvious differences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> <i>Dying Light<\/i>, published in 2014, in some ways rides the coattails of some very influential works in the survival horror video game arena, including classics like <i>Resident Evil<\/i> and <i>Silent Hill<\/i>, but no doubt holds a light of its own.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The game is played in first person perspective, and opens to your character, named Kyle Crane, booting up some augmented reality heads-up-display in the back of a military aircraft.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You are informed that there is a virus outbreak in the fictional city of Harran, and that an agency called the GRE has hired you to extract some information about the toxin, ostensibly in order to engineer a cure.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The virus outbreak, you quickly learn, has turned most of the population of the city into zombies.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>One of the very first things you hear is that your GRE-provided radio is \u201cyour lifeline, do not lose it,\u201d else face isolation in this apocalyptic city.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is the first instance we see of technology being equivalent to safety, to an advantage that is too valuable to lose.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This trope will be continued, as we will see later on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> When you parachute into the city, your parachute gets caught on an awning and a group of thugs finds you, injuring you badly and leaving you to the zombies.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This opening scene violently disrupts whatever expectations either the player or the character had of typical opening sequences in video games, as well as the orderly, tactical, composed feeling you get from the military aircraft and careful parachute ride down to the ground.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RLHR5smxbsc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;start=91&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">(Watch to 4:45)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Being immediately attacked by groups of both \u201cnormal\u201d humans and zombies right off the bat \u201cviolates our assumption that we live in a predictable, routinized world by demonstrating that we live in a minefield\u201d (Pinedo, 21).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Lucky for Crane, he is saved by a group of survivors that happen upon him just at the right time.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>However, to reinforce this violent upheaval of the norms of the civilized world, the creators of the game remind us quite vividly that no one is safe in this world- though the zombies don\u2019t kill Crane, we see one of his rescuers tackled and eaten by three zombies as Crane and the other survivors narrowly escape out a back door.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Right from the beginning, <i>Dying Light <\/i>pulls no punches whatsoever.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It is important that the player be shocked as they are thrown into the thick of things with very little warning, as this contributes greatly to both the horror and survival aspects of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> Eventually, Crane makes it back to the headquarters of this group of survivors, a place called The Tower.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In The Tower, people feel safe.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The doors, windows, and walls are all barricaded and the fortress can only be accessed by a series of acrobatic jumps and climbing that the zombies are incapable of.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Unfortunately for the group, there are infected left in the building, and we are reminded once again of the fragility of safety in such a world when several more survivors are infected within the walls of The Tower itself.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Not only do we see the borders of one of the few remaining sanctuaries being literally and metaphorically torn down, we get to watch characters conversion from human to zombie.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The newly infected are aware of their fate, which necessitates some difficult actions on the part of Crane, including killing his new friends before they have fully transformed into the zombies that plague them all.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The psychological aspect of being forced to kill something that is not entirely your enemy, and that you remember only as an ally in your struggle to survive is a significant factor in the horror and drama players experience.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Zombies, being the monsters, \u201cviolate the boundaries of the body through the use of violence against other bodies and through the disruptive qualities of [their] own bodies\u201d (Pinedo, 21).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Further, to see this disruption of the human and the natural only builds upon this violation and transgression of boundaries, \u201cdissolv[ing] binary differences\u201d (Pinedo, 21) between the proverbial \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018them.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> Now that we know how we are hunted and haunted by these zombies that fill the streets, there must be a way to combat them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed there is, but the suggested strategy in <i>Dying Light<\/i> is not to fight your way through endless hordes, beating them back or gunning them down by the dozens or hundreds.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Instead the game focuses more on the survival, scavenging, and crafting side of things.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Rather than finding a machine gun with a thousand bullets in every building, Crane is forced to loot the world for materials to build more tactical weapons with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s3.accelerated-ideas.com\/news\/images\/dying_light_blueprints.jpg?resize=480%2C273\" width=\"480\" height=\"273\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As the game progresses, Crane uses his intellect, military training, and tips from other survivors to combat the zombies with various technologies, from electric spike traps to toxic knives.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Furthermore, the zombies are significantly slowed and weakened by ultraviolet light, including from the sun.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Crane uses this knowledge as well as his technological prowess to make use of powerful lights to slow the zombies that are inside buildings or out at night.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Here we see again the role of technology as a savior, as a weapon against the darkness to help the hero complete his quest.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Technology, as demonstrated in <i>Dying Light<\/i> is an important part of postmodern horror, but can take very different forms as we will see in <i>Black Mirror.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> Last but not least in <i>Dying Light<\/i> is the implementation of the medium itself: video games.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The game is presented in first person, and offers the player lots of choice and freedom, as the game is open world and guided only by markers on a map as well as voices over the phone.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The inherent nature of such open world, first person games is that they use immediacy to help the audience participate in the horror of the game.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Everything you see, you see through Crane\u2019s eyes.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Not only are you controlling Crane\u2019s actions and choices, he is also controlling the bounds of your perspective and experience of this open world.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>By removing the lens of a camera floating over Cranes shoulder, the game employs immediacy and \u201cdictates that the medium itself should disappear and leave us in the presence of the thing represented: sitting in the racing car or standing on a mountaintop\u201d (Bolter, 64).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In this way the player is dragged further into the game, immersing him or her in this violent and strange world,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>and enhancing their experience of fear and horror.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> <i>Black Mirror<\/i> more often than not toys with these same principles of violent disruption, the role of technology, transgressions of boundaries, and immediacy to more fully captivate the audience with horror.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In <i>Men Against Fire<\/i>, we follow Stripe, a soldier in a semi-dystopian future.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Stripe and his fellow soldiers are all equipped with a neural implant, called MASS, that provides augmented reality and facilitates communication amongst the military.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Early on, we see Stripe and his squad hunting for \u201croaches,\u201d which are said to be mutated humans with diseases, disfigured genes, and monstrous appearances.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Furthermore, the military is far better equipped, with <a href=\"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/files\/2019\/02\/91DCB540-0B6B-4BB8-B448-EBC6AA9BF64D.mov\">high-tech guns, drones, and other tech such as \u201cthe boomer\u201d<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-family: inherit\">\u00a0which uses sound to quickly map the house they plan to infiltrate.<\/span><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\" style=\"font-family: inherit\">\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-family: inherit\">Technology is presented at first as equivalent to power, control, and superiority in this battle between the established and funded military and the underprivileged roaches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> In his first encounter, Stripe kills two roaches, one with a quick, cold shot to the head, and another in a much more intimate fight which ends with a knife in the chest of the roach.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>However, in this struggle, the roach is able to produce his own technological weapon, one that uses light and sound to apparently disorient the soldiers, and Stripe clearly is affected by this device.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It turns out that this device actually impairs the function of the MASS implants, which has massive implications.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Stripe\u2019s orderly, military world in which he follows orders and gets his job done is violently disrupted when he encounters more roaches.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>At first, Stripe sees the roaches as he did before: disfigured, unable to speak, and enraged.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/files\/2019\/02\/Screen-Recording-2019-02-22-at-9.18.53-PM.mov\"> However, Stripe feels the effects of the device from earlier and the roaches transform into normal looking humans right before his eyes.<\/a><\/span><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>This makes Stripe hesitate, as the boundaries between ally and enemy, between right and wrong dissolve.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>No longer is Stripe set out to systematically kill an enemy he cannot relate to.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, he is faced with helpless civilians, scared and wanting nothing other than to be left alone.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s revealed to Stripe that his MASS implant is abusing its augmented reality capabilities, that roaches are not in fact monsters, but are instead targets of genocide following a world war that broke out ten years ago.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>All of a sudden, right becomes wrong, wrong becomes right, and Stripe\u2019s entire world is flipped on its head.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> One of the most effective ways this episode immerses the audience in the story is immediacy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Similarly to how video games are often inherently immediate (first person perspective, agency of action, etc.) <i>Men Against Fire<\/i> employs first person perspective and intimate shots of tense scenes to remove the filter of the media itself between the story and the audience.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Stripe\u2019s dreams are seen through his eyes; we never get a glimpse of him or anything else, and are equally rudely removed from these dream states alongside him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>When Stripe is fighting his first roaches, we see most of the encounter, and most importantly both deaths through his eyes.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As Stripe\u2019s MASS implant begins to glitch, we get to experience the visual and auditory errors that he does.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Throughout the episode, we, the audience, are very intentionally shown this world and its events through the main character\u2019s eyes in order to bring the story more directly to us and to help us empathize more deeply with Stripe\u2019s confusion and disorientation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> As time progresses, new technologies allow for expressions of common literary themes to be developed upon and introduced to the consumer in fascinating new ways.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Video games, being one of the newest forms of media available, is a fascinating avenue down which to assess and analyze the employment of defining characteristics of genres, especially as they compare to more conventional media such as television.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Postmodern Horror relies on shock value, psychological terror, and immersion into the story to scare the audience, to make them think, and to make commentary about the world we live in.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Both <i>Dying Light<\/i> and <i>Men Against Fire<\/i> share many of these commonalities, and yet utilize them in differing ways.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In <i>Dying Light<\/i>, technology serves as a connection to allies and especially as a tool for survival.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>However, technology also serves as a reminder of the constant struggle and conflict Crane finds himself in: nothing and nowhere is safe, but technology can be employed to at least diminish dangers.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>On the flip side, In <i>Men Against Fire<\/i>, technology is the deceiver, altering reality and hiding the ugly truth, helping soldiers avoid the ethical dilemma of murdering innocent civilians based on their genetic makeup.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Though these two \u2018texts\u2019 make use of technology in nearly opposite ways, they reinforce the danger and abnormality of the horrific world in which the audience finds itself.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Finally, immediacy is crucial in both works.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Without the implementation of first person perspectives and intimate portrayal of violent and life-threatening situations, the audience might feel more of a disconnect between them and the characters, diminishing the sense of fear so central to these narratives.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>While video games afford much more autonomy and thereby greater connection to the character, <i>Black Mirror<\/i> surely doesn\u2019t miss their opportunities to achieve \u201ca similar effect: the impression of an encounter with the real\u201d (Kirkland, 117).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Both of these works conform with many of the typical characteristics of great postmodern horror texts in their own ways to create thrilling, immersive experiences of terror within a compelling narrative, and both deserve to be played and watched long into the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccelerated Ideas.\u201d <i>Accelerated Ideas<\/i>, 2014, www.accelerated-ideas.com\/news\/dying-light&#8211;crafting-and-blueprints-guide.aspx.<\/p>\n<p>Bolter, Jay David. \u201cRemediation and the Desire for Immediacy.\u201d <i>Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies<\/i>, vol. 6, no. 1, 2000, pp. 62\u201371., doi:10.1177\/135485650000600107.<\/p>\n<p>Booker, Charlie. \u201cMen Against Fire.\u201d <i>Black Mirror<\/i>, season 3, episode 5, Netflix, 21 Oct. 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Kirkland, E. \u201cResident Evil&#8217;s Typewriter: Survival Horror and Its Remediations.\u201d <i>Games and Culture<\/i>, vol. 4, no. 2, 2008, pp. 115\u2013126., doi:10.1177\/1555412008325483.<\/p>\n<p>Pinedo, Isabel. \u201cRecreational Terror: Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film.\u201d <i>Journal of Film and Video<\/i>, vol. 48, no. 1\/2, 1996, pp. 17\u201331., www.jstor.org\/stable\/20688091?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents.<\/p>\n<p>TheRadBrad, producer. <i>YouTube<\/i>. <i>YouTube<\/i>, YouTube, 10 Dec. 2014, www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RLHR5smxbsc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The horror genre is an extremely nuanced literary, cinematic, and electronic game genre that has evolved incredibly quickly, literally before our eyes, in the last 40 or so years.\u00a0 The more recent works of horror are often categorized as postmodern, or late-postmodern horror, and can be defined by a few key characteristics as described by &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comparative-horror"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9Ga-af","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}