Scary Video Games

Matt Gatewood and I love to scare ourselves silly playing Resident Evil in the dark.  On more than one occasion we've been laughed at by people peeking in the door to catch us staring intently at the screen, eyes wide, mouth half open, completely unaware of how long we've been playing.

A few years ago when I lived at home, we were playing, and my mom sneaked up and imitated a girlish scream from the game, which sent Matt jumping off the futon.  Actually she may not have even sneaked up; when we play, we're basically oblivious to the world.

Playing the Wii version of the game has yielded still more laughs.  While I was being swarmed by giant insects, frantically using the Wii remote to aim and fire at them, "A - Kick" appeared at the bottom of the screen.  I didn't know what Matt was laughing at until I realized I was actually kicking in the air.  It's hard to remember the A button in the heat of battle.

I don't know why it's fun to be scared, but it is.  I'm not into scary movies, but I can't help but think that scary video games are scarier than scary movies.  They put me in the hapless character's shoes, complete with clunky controls and the possibility of death.  If a character dies in a scary movie, there's nothing I can do about it, but in the game, it's on my head.  Plus, it's hard to care much about the demise of movie victims, because typically they've acted pretty stupid, selfish and annoying up to that point.

Next up: Dead Space for PS3, purchased yesterday with a gift certificate Matt gave me, and primed to scare us on Tuesday.  This will be the most high-def fear we have subjected ourselves to yet, so I'm curious to see what kind of highbrow laughs will ensue.  It's fun to be scared, but it's even more fun to laugh at someone who is scared.