The Town of Light: A Different Look into Mental Health in Horror
I have always had a morbid fascination with horror games, but am too much of a scaredy-cat to play many of them – Resident Evil and Bioshock are the exceptions to rule and even those I have to play with my housemate so not to cry. When I was told I could have a go on The Town of Light, a European horror game by Wired Productions, I couldn’t help but say yes. Maybe this would be a horror that I could play and enjoy without having to beg someone else to sit in the room with me! I was over the moon to give it a go and find out about it.
An Examination of Horror (Or Why Am I Fascinated by Something so Scary!)
I'll precis this by telling you that I cannot watch horror movies of any sort. They trigger a very unpleasant reaction in my that can be anything from throwing up (yeah, nice) to going into a full on state of shock (one time at 2am when my housemate was so scared for me he nearly called an ambulance) followed by days of bone chilling anxiety, and I am not exaggerating this. This reaction is often referred to as psychosomatic shock, literally the brain perceiving danger where there is none in reality and putting the body into a state of shock. It's horrible. So, obviously I do not watch horror movies, and yet I am fascinated by horror as a genre. Maybe this is because I cannot interact with it, and so it is a morbid curiosity but I think it is something more.