Thoughts on horror writing.

[eyeCoof]

Last night I've been sitting with friends for a cheap burger somewhere in mid-town Yaffo. Between bites we've noticed that The Hollow Man (that's what I believe that the terrible Invisible Man movie-thing with Kevin Bacon was called) was playing on TV. After making fun of it for a while, we've gotten to talk about movies, or a potential plot, where although the focus will be on the killer (okay, that's been done - Freddy, Jason), his murders would be somehow justified. An extreme form of an anti-hero; more like a villain you can identify with, or at least understand. So further on I've been wondering about making a transition of this concept into AGS. A game where you play a serial killer? And I don't mean something that would play like Postal. Say, a father who has a sick child and discovers that his child seems to get better whenever the father causes pain (this can be discovered by say, cutting his hand, and then moving on to killing small animals, then... bigger animals). How would you develop such a plotline, such a character?

[deadsuperhero]

Sounds almost like a Hitchcock movie, I like the idea.

[Khris]

This sounds very interesting.

Do you plan to explain why the child gets better whenever the father causes pain? I guess the explanation can only be a supernatural one, right?

It wouldn't be the first story with a person that kills bad guys, but I've always liked to play the villain in a computer game.

[eyeCoof]

Not really Hitchcock, seeing how he didn't really deal with the supernatural in his films (The Birds being a semi-exception).

Khris - well, the explanation would be a supernatural one. I have it lined up basically in my head, but I don't want to post it here, seeing how, who knows, even though I don't do anything AGS-related except gaming or writing (well, I do music, too. But I can't animate, for draw, for crap. I'm completely worthless at that), it might happen someday. I didn't think about killing bad guys, BTW. More like showing the father killing people to save his child. Although the premise is twisted. Obviously he won't be quite sane throughout.

[Dan_N]

Ok, EyeCoof, i saw this topic and as i like writing so much i decided to help out. Here's what i had in mind:

The father and mother have a child, but the mother dies delivering. This takes good ol' dad into a depression. Then, it gets worse. He finds out that his son is dangerously ill and requires 24-hours a day care. But he can't handle it so he hires a woman (in her 50s) to watch the boy (it being a boy will strengthen the relationship between father and baby). So, after a while, (a month or two) one night, the dad seems chipper and feels he can make dinner. He starts cutting carrots, then the image of his wife just kind of hits him in the head and he accidentally cuts his finger (nothing serious). Immediately after, the woman screams "it's a miracle" from upstairs. Dad runs up and his son recovers, but falls again into illness (although he's better). Then, the woman looks at the father's finger and sees that it doesn't stop bleeding. This will be his trademark, the finger that won't stop bleeding (i think it's been done, but i like it).
Anyway, life goes on and every time dad cut a piece of meat, son would feel better, but nothing quite got him really cured. So dad starts thinking... what if?
He then thinks: "i must save my son! but i can't kill! if i mutilate myself i'll die eventually... what to do? what if i kill the bastards that deserve it? what if i rid the streets of low-lives? i might save my son and do the city a favor!". he then tunes his radio to the police frequency and goes hunting and at every crimescene, he would leave a sample of his own blood from his finger... leaving the police baffled. he eventually goes insane and since his son doesn't recover after a large number of killings, he believes that the nany is behind it and kills her. this, somehow, brings much joy to his son (which, if you want a sequel, could, in turn lead the son to be worse than the father when he matures). but still, the son is still ill, and so the father must continue killing... this is the point where the somewhat dark hero becomes the anti-hero... and enter a detective who investigates and talks to the father just like a normal man would talk to his neighbor. one thing leeds to another and dad tries to kill the detective and they fight and dad, deadly wounded, traps the detective in the basement. the detective eventually escapes, but dad and son get far away and the game ends with a case unsolved...

Like it?
Indeed, there may be some flaws, but i hope i gave you some ideeas. In the point where dad goes REALLY insane, you can shift control from dad to detective, thus, the player is always in the role of the hero, although gets to play as the anti-hero for a short period.
Hope i helped and i didn't, well, input is always good.

[GarageGothic]

It sounds like "Little Shop of Horrors" ("Feed me, Seymour!") with an M. Night Shyamalan plot mixed in. I certainly wouldn't mind playing a game like this. In fact, one of my favorite adventures is Dreamweb, where you never know whether the hero is actually killing in the name of good or is just insane.

[deadsuperhero]

I like where all of this is going.

Okay, well how about a true twist at the end: the father comes to believe that the only way his son will live is if he dies.
But in reality, all that killing has reversed the effect, and created some kind of physical bond to the son. If the father dies, the son dies too. It would be a sad ending, but it's probably the best way to end it.

[Dan_N]

Good ideea, but if there were a sequel, when dad is old and nearing death, wouldn't son die too and thus kill the plot?

[eyeCoof]

Dan, I like the ideas, but... this isn't really where I was heading with it. Thanks, though.

GG - Yeah, I know. I thought about the Little Shop of Horrors thing too. Kinda funny. Dig that movie.

[jetxl]

It's like Hellraiser 1 where the woman feeds the man people in order to make him whole again... but totally different.

You could do a Boogypop Phantom aproach where the character thinks he's doing the right thing then realizes he's doing it out of self intrest and suffers a horrible death.

example:
It starts by showing the man sad, powerless and deperate (not angry) about his son's demise. The character is contacted by a mysterious (read undeveloped) character who gives the character a [insert plot device here] that can capture soul power. The charcter, sceptic at first, tests it out on a john doe in the hospital. Realizing it works but in seach for more souls, he becomes more inconspicuous by killing hookers and bums. Then it becomes more personal by killing his boss for fireing him because he's nver at work and always with his son. Then he kils for stupit reasons, like killing the neighbour because she complains about the uncut lawn infront of his house. The demise, he kills a cop for asking too many questions. Cournered by the police, he captures his own soul and saves his son. But a tragic tale needs a tragic ending. The son is filled with tormented souls and kills himself.
Capturing a soul with the plot device could be a repeating mini game, to slow the story speed down.

[eyeCoof]

This sounds a bit like American Psycho, actually.

[Mad-Hatter]

I really like the premise for this story.

Okay, so the father causes pain and the child seems to get better?

The first thing you need to establish in your story is what's wrong with the child. Yes, the child is sick. But sick how? Physically ill? Demonically ill? Maybe just mentally ill?

After that is established, you need to know what the father has done to try to help the child. Has the child seen any doctors? If not, why not?
Has the father tried any medicines, home remedies, etc.?

Once those pesky little details are out of the way, there's just one more thing before we get it going: STRESS.

Obviously he won't be quite sane throughout.

The child causes stress to the father by the ailment.

Then, as you already said, you can get on with the story. A mysterious stranger arrives and tells this man, "To make your son better, he needs souls." and gives him some soul capturing thingymerhoosit.

Whether the stranger tells him or he finds out on his own, the father must at some point realize that torturing people and making their deaths more dramatic makes the soul stronger, thus making his child better.

That would be how I do it anyway. You can go about it your own way if you'd like.



I like the plot, but I don't see how you could impliment it as a game?

[fred]

I watched an interview with a guy who had been in the Foreign Legion, who had chosen to retire at one point, because he felt almost addicted to killling. As a professional soldier his whole life was centred on killing the enemy, and if too much time went by with no killing, he would get depressed, restless and unsatisfied. Without saying so directly, he made it pretty clear that this was a normal phenomenon among his friends of arms, and that it sometimes resulted in unneccessary bloodshed. At the time of the interview he had a regular office job, btw. I think that's pretty scary, and without making guesses about the mental health of people joining the Foreign Legion, I think it's a recognizable psycho-mechanism on a smaller scale - like we can suddenly smile after we really insulted somebody who's been bugging us, or laugh when we "know for fact that we've done something wrong", maybe because it releases us from the ever-present "suspicion that we've done something wrong". Exploring this idea of inflicting pain being joyous would be interesting to see, especially in a game.

Building on the suggestions so far, I think the story would benefit from the child having to actually see the pain inflicted and people getting hurt in order to get something from it - maybe an almost infant who can only be brought to giggle when somebody is hurt badly. This could be discovered by accident, like already suggested. And his single father desperately going along with it out of sick love for his child, the atrocities being his only moment of emotional contact with his child. He lost his wife and is lonely, so contact with his child is really important to him, and as if the child knows and is taking advantage of it,Ã,  the father is driven to still messier acts of violence and murder in order to maintain contact.Ã, 
When, at the scene of one of their crimes, they are almost caught hands on by the female detective who is on their case, the father fakes innocence and gratitude towards her, and they get involved. Perhaps he's a bit wimpy/awkward and seems harmless, and she believes he's a nice guy trying to help in the investigation, so she eventually falls in love with him, partlyÃ,  because of the enormous fatherly affection he shows his strange child. Of course he's also falling in love with the woman detective, who seems like a way out of his depraved state, as the one person who could finally heal his wounds that he still has from losing his wife - there's just this barrier between them because he must hide the atrocities he performs and delude her investigation. Meanwhile, the child should become harder and harder to satisfy, almost like it suffers from the growing love between his father and the woman. The tension would build up, the crimes get worse and the web of lies more thinly stretched. And finally the father will have to sacrifice either child or woman, or himself.

Well, that's the most hitchcocky I could come up with on the fly. Hope it gives you some ideas.Ã,