|
Why Horror? (2014)
1
Horror is absolutely necessary. Fear is part of our DNA. We are born with an instinctive sense of fear. We have to avoid what scares us but if we don't know what scares us, you won't be able to escape from it. (Goya) tries, in a crude way, to tell how crazy we are. That is, in a way, what we do with a horror film. Goya is fantastic. Goya was the first one. Goya was the first one of us. Really, the day of the dead celebrates a festive cycle related to the production, the life and death, of corn. And it's the time of abundance, when you can give back to your ancestors. Since they've been helping you from the ground, because they are buried. And it's said that in Xochimilco we don't bury men, we sow them. National culture has been deeply affected by Halloween. And by these images that are not necessarily part of our culture. They make it sinister when it isn't. Nobody would find it logical that you would give an offering to a being that is here to hurt you. So there is this pressure that says Day of Dead is to be frightened or to be scared. And it's not like that. Committing violent and sadistic acts, So by watching horror films they can vicariously experience it and feel excitement and catharsis. I'm not the type, but for people with sadistic urges it can provide a release. Kabuki theatre, as well as Noh theatre, both originally began as entertainment for commoners. In order to make the elements of the story easily identifiable, the characters on the stage are presented in a fixed figure or form. Most of the time, ghosts appear in a white kimono. Ghosts are just humans. People. They represent the darkness that we carry inside. What humans are most afraid of is nature. Natural phenomena. Such as the dark or snakes. Women are not able to express themselves aggressively through violence like men, meaning they have all these negative feelings swirling inside, which is scary. And then when they die in that state, even after they die, their grudgeful spirit remains. In Japanese Buddhism, when you kill something there will be karmic retribution. Horror has perhaps been used to teach this concept of retribution. That type of spirit has endured as one of the most frightening things in Japanese culture. In around 1997-98 a Japanese horror film called "The Ring" was released in cinemas. I heard that when "The Exorcist" was released in the US, it caused panic at the theatres. The same kind of thing happened when "The Ring" was released in Japanese cinemas. Evil Dead is a movie you have to watch with friends. You have to get a video... it's better in video than in the theatre. You get a VHS. A bad quality VHS. Put it on the TV, lots of popcorn, pizza, beer. All of that together becomes a party. There's nothing more fun than everybody screaming together. Initially when I was developing the first Resident Evil, there wasn't much of a puzzle solving element to it. In the early stages the game was a straight forward action-survival shooter and became overly simplistic. In thinking of the world of the game, I wanted to include puzzle-solving elements. By doing that we tried to expand and enhance the gaming experience for players. Fear is not necessarily a bad thing, I think. I believe that it is good to know the existence of scary things. Why are scary things considered to be bad? Creating scary stories is totally different from hurting or cheating people. Horror stories used to be a part of general education. People learned about the wide scope of this world through horror stories. Why horror? One thing I can say about the nature of horror; it is like a mystery that can never be solved. It's sort of like a perpetual history. And I think if the mystery of horror is solved, it loses its fascination. |
|