The Perfect Halloween Experience?
To prepare for Halloween lets talk about an unholy trinity that shares a common thread. That thread is twisted and limitless in its scares and body morphing scares. Each one covers a separate form of media so there will be something for everyone here, but to truly get the comparative experience, I'd recommend all three.
The Thing
The one that most likely influenced the rest, The Thing is easily the one I'd recommend the most of these three. This film was absolutely astounding, and did with special effects in horror what Star Wars did with science fiction. The film released in 1982 and yet you can watch it today wondering how in the world the movie magic was made. These days movies arguably lean too much on CGI, and even the 2011 prequel to The Thing carrying the same title showed its audience what the movie would look like if it used CGI. Unfortunately, the choice to use software to bring The Thing to life, may have been the weakest part of the film.
The film introduces us to a group of characters isolates in the middle of a frozen tundra as they conduct research. A dog being shot at by a foreigner takes refuge at their campsite, but the dog is not what it seems. The crew soon becomes infected and the 'thing' takes over the host's body in haunting ways. One of the most terrifying scenes is when the crew chases down a member of their group that has been taken over, but the 'thing' hasn't completely mimicked him. So once they catch up to him they find a horrific hybrid that simply wails at them in an inhuman tone.
As the movie goes on the tension is nearly constant as it creeps within every scene as spikes of action nearly always hit the audience unsuspectingly. And even the ending of the movie carries the very same tension as it ends on a vague note that leaves questions unanswered. Not until the credits roll do you finally take a sigh of relief as if you've been holding your breath. But what if the environment was even more threatening then a frozen tundra, and what if the 'thing' chose to attack those around it rather then hide with the human host?
Dead Space
Lets look at the plot of the game in it's simplest terms. A man is set off to investigate a distress signal coming from a ship called the Ishimura. A Space ship that practically mirrors the size of a city and it's main directive is mining planets for resources, but unfortunately that picked up more then resources during their most recent trip. See where I'm going with this? That's right, it's The Thing in space. You, as the player, are given the persona of an engineer who was sent to the ship to answer the stress call and fix whatever the issue might be. But you quickly learn that the issue is more then a leaky pipe as you find the ship seemingly void of any human life.
As you continue to explore, you are soon confronted with the grotesquely twisted humans who have been been taken over by what they call, the necromorphs. And what's worse is that instead of a rocket launcher or machine gun you're given engineering tools that are altered into weapons. Weapons that cut the enemy's legs or arms of as they still run towards you without stopping. The tables have turned in this story, because instead of The Thing hiding from us, In Dead Space we're forced to hide from the necromorphs. The reason being is The Thing was alone, and hid only to protect itself in the human world. However, in Dead Space, once we've entered the ship, we're in the Necromorph's world, and they don't need to hide from you.
Dead Space tells you the story of what happened as you tackle each obstacle put in your way. The story is a sad one, and as true horror tends to do, it lets you use your imagination as you learn the tragic tale of the Ishimura. And although these stories have their strengths, which are made stronger through their choice of medium, there's something missing. What if the very monster taking over these people's minds and bodies was sentient and could think and speak for itself?
Parasyte Maxim
This anime answers that question amongst many other philosophical questions of what exactly makes us human. It's so much easier when you point at something and call it a monster and the monster doesn't talk back. But before we dive deeper into the philosophical questions discussed within the science fiction of Parasyte lets learn more about the plot. The story revolves around mysterious beings known as Parasytes taking over human minds by entering through the ear of a human host. We are then introduced to Shinichi Izumi, who was nearly taken over as he slept, but had headphones in which forced the Parasyte to enter through his hand.
He wakes up the next morning with his right hand disfigured and speaking back to him. Obviously this is hard to believe, but once he comes to terms with the situation he realizes that the true issue isn't with him, but with the human race being threatened by these intruders. Parasyte finds itself between The Thing and Dead Space as those who are taken over mimic the human they become and attempt to blend in with society as they feed on other humans for survival. They hide because humans still out number them, similar to the mind set of The Thing, but once they aren't threatened their human host twists into horrific blend of flesh and blades that cuts their victims into pieces.
What makes Shinichi Izumi different is that he was able to keep his mind, so the parasite and him live in the same body. And as the show progresses they learn that they are stronger together then any human or Parasyte are apart. The anime scratches the itch of anyone who wanted to be able to speak to The Thing in the 1980s movie and learn it's reasons and motives. It also answers the question of what would happen if it was released in a typical suburban neighborhood, rather then an isolated wasteland.
But what do you think? Have you experienced all three? If so, which is you favorite interpretation?
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