Summary
- Pareidolia, the phenomenon of seeing patterns such as faces where they might not be, aided prehistoric survival by recognizing threats.
- Video game horror uses pareidolia to evoke fear in players.
- Fatal Frame uniquely uses pareidolia with shadowy ghosts. Other games use it with faces in trees or grainy pictures.
Pareidolia is the phenomenon of seeing meaningful patterns, such as faces, where they might not be. As Greg Rienzi discusses in his article for Johns Hopkins University magazine:
As humans, we’re hardwired to discern such recognizable and often meaningful patterns […] We see the face of an old man in the knots of a tree, the shape of an animal in the clouds, the man on the moon.
Very simply, it is thought that pareidolia kept prehistoric humans on alert and on guard, improving their chances of survival. Recognizing a threat in the distance is an obvious evolutionary advantage to prehistoric humans, who were at risk of being taken out by the nearest predator. Nowadays, though, horror video game designers and developers weaponize this reflexive reaction to elicit creeping dread and hideous jump scares.
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6
The Evil Within
Why Not Try Flash Bolts?
Third-Person Shooter
Survival Horror
- Released
-
October 14, 2014
- Franchise
-
The Evil Within
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Fair
Despite the overtly horrific things players will find in The Evil Within, it is the enemies that make players’ minds fill in the gaps that can be the most terrifying. The infamously difficult Invisible Haunted are great examples of how the spectral monsters of The Evil Within make players question their senses.
In Chapter 5, Sebastian is chased by an invisible version of the Haunted he has encountered throughout the game, but this time, he cannot see them to fight back. Players have to stay alert and look for the tell-tale signs of movement and patterns in the environment in order to take these barely perceivable enemies out. It makes fantastic use of the nightmarish qualities of The Evil Within as a game series.
5
Blair Witch
It’s Not Just Trees Out There
- Released
-
August 30, 2019
- Franchise
-
Blair Witch
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Fair
Trees are common sources of pareidolia, and that is part of the fear that the Blair Witch mythos draws upon. Isolation in a dense forest and the vaguely humanoid figures of the trees make the audience (or in the case of Bloober Team’s Blair Witch game, the player) paranoid and uncertain. There is the constant sense that someone or something could be watching from the trees.
Blair Witch uses a variety of tree forms that tap into different kinds of pareidolia. There are thin spindly trees like the tree monsters that roam the forest at night, as well as thick trees with roots that appear like reaching arms or even swollen blood vessels. Adding to the paranoia is the knowledge that the secondary antagonist, Carver, is out there somewhere, camouflaging himself among those trees.
4
The Voidness
LIDAR Horror Survival Game
- Developer: SteelKrill Studios
- Release date: 2023
- Platform: PC
- Website
The Voidness is a fantastic indie horror title that uses the limitations and unique qualities of specific technology to prey on players’ reflexive impulse to see meaningful patterns. The main mode of exploration in The Voidness is through the use of a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scanner to construct a 3D representation of a space known as the void.
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Of course, it wouldn’t be a horror game if there weren’t invisible creatures in that void. This means that the player has to interpret the unusual patterns made by the LIDAR in order to survive the trek to the escape capsule.
3
Silent Hill 2 Remake
Is That A Shadow Or A Figure In The Fog?
Survival Horror
Horror
Adventure
Action
- Released
-
October 8, 2024
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Mighty
The whole Silent Hill series runs on a strange dichotomy between pareidolia and the uncanny valley. Things that should look human don’t. Even worse, things look strangely human that really, really shouldn’t. The Silent Hill 2 Remake showcases this particular brand of horror that relies on implied rather than distinct human forms.
The original Silent Hill 2 required players to make inductive leaps to make sense of enemies by necessity. While the remake does not operate under the same graphical limitations, it still weaponizes ambiguity to make players second guess the world around them. The run-down complexity of the abandoned town and the dense coating of fog can make players see threats that aren’t there — a quality that is very on brand for Silent Hill as a franchise.
2
Iron Lung
It’s Not An Exploration, It’s An Execution
Indie Games
Adventure
Simulation
Iron Lung is a prime example of how flawed technology can induce pareidolia. The player has been welded into a dilapidated and decaying submarine, the titular Iron Lung, and must collect images for an expedition to follow. They are a convict and deemed expendable, so this is already not going to end well.
As the player navigates the area, they can take grainy pictures to see what is happening outside but do not have access to any windows. Their view of the world is entirely mediated through the camera and the controls of the Iron Lung. So, when weird shapes that look like bones and faces begin to appear in the grainy photos, it is terrifying.
1
The Fatal Frame Series
They Can See Things Other People Can’t
- Released
-
March 9, 2023
- Franchise
-
Fatal Frame
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Fair
No game uses pareidolia as uniquely and effectively as Fatal Frame. The ghosts of the Fatal Frame series are often barely defined shadowy figures. The player might only see the spirits out of the corner of their eye, or those spirits may fling themselves at the player, and everything in between. Often, the player mistakes the patterns in the natural environment of the mountain or the peeling paint of the manor for ghosts.
The way to deal with ghosts is to take a photo of them with the Camera Obscura. The closer the ghosts get before the player takes the photo, the more damage they take. This is obviously dangerous and anxiety-inducing, so players find themselves constantly scanning their surroundings for ghostly figures hiding in the gloom.
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