Halloween is the horror holiday and as such it’s the perfect place to find some great inspiration for media students – here’s my picks for you to check out…
The Conjuring
I’ve picked The Conjuring because it’s a contemporary Studio Supernatural film ( i’m not sure it’s accurately described as a ‘horror’…) that has the style of a 70’s ghost story, not unlike The Exorcist or The Amytiville Horror. It’s also refreshingly low on gore, and relies on old fashioned haunting archetypes like The chair rocking itself, slamming doors, and ghosts half glimpsed out the corner of your eye. the filmmakers also do a solid job setting up the history and background stories to the hauntings, which i love in a good haunted house movie.
If you like The Conjuring check out The Others and Woman in Black too.
Limbo
Limbo is a delightfully grim Indie horror game from Danish developer Play Dead. It’s multi platform and can be found on sale every now and again through Xbox live and PS store.
I love the absolute feeling of dread and desolation created through the simple use of silhouette style art and the minimalist and expertly executed sound effects. It’s a great twist on the side scrolling platform genre – like the evil twin of a Mario game. Watch out for that spider…..
Hellboy
Not the awesome duo of films by horror maestro Guillermo del Toro – although they’re most certainly worthy of a look. this is the comic book anti-hero, in a series of comic stories by Mike Mignola and others.
The world of Hellboy is gothic castles and undead scientists – where mythical monsters fight alongside mysterious government agents. The art style is bold & colourful, cut through with huge swathes of black shadow.
The short story ‘The Corpse’ is worth looking up first – it may be available on digital download for tablets too.
What are your creepy media inspirations….?
Categories: Comic Books, Feature Films, Video Games
Visual Arts 