The Doors of Perception: Horror Video Games and the Ideological Implications of Ludic Virtual Reality

Abstract

With the ‘perfect marriage’ between horror and video games has come a concomitant cultural studies discourse surrounding these games. Previously, while Carol Clover insisted that identification through the perspectival screen is poorly understood, she seminally argued that slasher horror in particular allows for more progressive gender identifications. More broadly, and somewhat conversely, Carly Kocurek observes the most reactionary effects of the horror genre’s reduction of cultural ‘others’ to monsters and the problem with their prurient dispatch in video games. Lastly, Tammy Lin argues that the experience of virtual reality (VR) significantly heightens the experience of horror. In concert, these imply that VR should heighten the ideological effects and gender identifications identified by both Kocurek and Clover, for better or for worse. This paper examines the ways in which both ostensibly reactionary and progressive ideological elements have migrated into horror video games and the implications of VR on this phenomenon.