They might be there within the narrative, but when it’s at its best, Japanese horror is instead focused on telling sad stories of tragedy. As I mentioned in my recent review of Corpse Party, Japanese horror, when it is at its best, is not about monsters or other ugly things in the dark. The Project Zero, or Fatal Frame (as it is known in America), series, has always been a deeply frightening horror series, but it has always been less a horror of physical threat, and more a case of a slow, methodical, intellectual and psychological fear. This may well be the first game where I found my character standing at the edge of a body of water and I was dreading pushing on. The water of this game is deeply corrupted and sinister, which made me incredibly uncomfortable, and dreading what I knew was coming up each and every time I came across a pool of water or a waterfall through the adventure. It takes the natural beauty and tranquility of water, and sets it against the unnatural horror of ghosts and spirits. Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is one such game. So when a game takes the motif of water and then makes it central to the entire narrative drive of the experience, it has a powerful emotional effect on me, by connecting it to something I do find so intensely beautiful. Related reading: Project Zero is exclusive to the Nintendo Wii U, but if you’re looking for a narrative horror game on another platform we recommend Until Dawn on the PlayStation 4. Water is truly a fascinating source of inspiration for an artist to work with. As something that can relax and revitalise us. And the way it interacts with people is just as interesting as a requirement to life, as a mirror. The motion of it, the elegance, the power of it. It’s not just that water is so essential to life that it appeals to me it’s the aesthetics of water that I find so compelling. Give me a camera and I can spend a whole day photographing the ocean, a river or a waterfall, for example.
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