Paper Abstract - Tanya Krzywinska

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ABSTRACT

Constructions of Tension in Horror-Based Videogames

Tanya Krzywinska

This paper explores the ways in which horror-based videogames construct tension. Given the extended playing times of videogames and the role played by interactivity, videogame designers have had to revise the usual strategies used by filmmakers for creating thrills, shock and suspense. With close textual analysis of American McGee's Alice, Clive Barker's Undying and Silent Hill 2, the paper will explore some of the medium-specific conventions that have emerged in the genre.

Tanya Krzywinska is a Senior Lecturer in Film and TV Studies at Brunel University and is an avid videogame player in her spare time. She is the author of A Skin for Dancing In: Possession, Voodoo and Witchcraft in Film (Flicks Books, 2000), co-author, with Geoff King, of Science Fiction Cinema (Wallflower Press, 2000), co-editor, with Geoff King, of ScreenPlay: film/videogames/interfaces (Wallflower Press due 2002), has had articles on pornography, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, melodrama and the horror genre published, and is currently working on a book project entitled Sex and the Cinema.

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