Survival horror is definitely not a genre for all audiences. Although not always explicitly gory, video games that belong to this category are mostly characterized by a set of unique traits, that set them on a level of their own. During the years they too, just like all other genres, have gone through several different stages and developments, but their core remains consistently the same: the depiction of a stressing, chilling atmosphere, most often with hints of metaphysical elements and an overall feeling that simulates that of experiencing a nightmare. The lead characters, usually stranded or trapped, are being chased by terrifying enemies who sometimes are monsters, and other times are humans acting as such. Survival gradually becomes their main concern, while at the same time they are looking for ways to and means to fight those enemies and finally defeat them. Throughout their still vivid history in the gaming industry, survival horror games have been and still are influenced by emblematic thriller, horror and mystery films that, most of the times, gained a cult following with the passing of time. In this article, I will focus on two game series, The Evil Within games and the Resident Evil saga, and how they were influenced by two one-of-a-kind film-makers, Dario Argento and David Lynch.

Dario Argento (left) and David Lynch (right)

Dario Argento is the Italian creator of many unforgettable giallo films. Giallo means yellow in italian and the term is used to describe horror movies of the 70ties and 80ties, where gore was particularly prominent. Argento is a master of horror and his giallo films left an indelible mark in the movies industry. Combining pure, raw gore with lush, extravagant settings or contrasting his twisted plots with idyllic environments, almost always with raucous heavy metal music playing in the background, his films are, interestingly enough, mostly memorable for their unique cinematography, the ingenious ideas when it comes to mystery, and the use of unexpected elements as important plot points. 

Suspiria (1977)

Argento's films are full of symbols, allegories and the multi-leveled use of elements and objects. In his iconic Phenomena (1985), the protagonist is Jennifer, a young girl who sleepwalks and has the unique ability to communicate with insects. Jennifer also comes from a not so usual home: her parents are divorced, and her father is a famous actor who, however, never appears physically in the film. The way that Argento chooses to present her is very interesting: typically, she has the characteristics of a fairy tale heroine, with elements of the stereotypical damsel in distress archetype, but the story follows her as she deals with dangers almost all alone; and the man who at some point runs to her rescue is neither a love interest nor a knight in shining armour but her father's lawyer, who however gets morbidly murdered before being able to offer her assistance. Jennifer has no love interest, anyway, she prefers being alone and the company of an old entomologist, whose pet is a female chimpanzee called Inga.

Jennifer with the professor and Inga, and the various insects in glass cases and photos

Jennifer's ability to communicate with insects is referenced in Alexia's power to control the ant colony in her mansion in Resident Evil: Code Veronica, in Natalia's understanding the messages of the larvae in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 and, in a grotesque version, in Marguerite's bond with her beloved flies in Resident Evil 7. Insects are featured quite often in video games, and in the Resident Evil universe their appearances are always of major importance. Derek Simmons's final mutation in Resident Evil 6 was a giant fly; the huge mosquito-like monsters in Resident Evil 4 were among the saga's most hateful enemies; and who can forget the wasp hive in the lab at the Spencer mansion in the first Resident Evil game. All these of course go back to Franz Kafka's iconic novella Metamorphosis (1915), in which the protagonist Gregor Samsa transforms into a giant insect.

Jennifer (left) and Natalia spotting insects in the forest

Argento develops his story in the form of a fairy tale, adding elements in the way that gradually widen the gap between magic and reality. Jennifer's dream world - or, better, in this case, her nightmare journey - consists of sleepwalking and having disturbing visions associated with murder. Her communicating with flies is her safe haven, and it is actually the insects that lead her to getting to the bottom of the horror-filled mystery of the story. Jennifer is a student in a boarding school where the governess is a woman with a troubled past and a more troubled present. Her dark secret is the existence of a child, result of her being raped by a mentally ill man in the asylum where she previously worked. The child, grotesquely deformed due to a medical syndrome, is hidden in what seems to be an abandoned house and is the one responsible for the murders that Jennifer sees in her sleepwalking sessions. While investigating the house, Jennifer falls in a pool filled with maggots and disintegrating human limbs. A bit later, the sick boy shows up and attacks her. At this point, her sleepwalking nightmares identify abruptly with the reality she is experiencing, and her only way to make it out alive is to summon her loyal friends, her insects, that rush to kill her monstrous pursuer.

 

Jennifer in the pool of terror

Jennifer's fall in the gruesome pool is a symbolic descend to Hell, more accentuated by the fact that said pool is in the basement of the house. This scene is referenced in The Evil Within, during a sequence close to the beginning of the game. Sebastian, the lead character, has just been separated from his partners while investigating a massacre at a mental hospital. Unbeknownst to him, he enters a sick man's mind and all that he experiences are distorted segments of memories and monsterized versions of reality's fragments. In this twisted world, he finds himself chased by a butcher / executioner who walks around yielding a chainsaw. In his struggle to escape him, Sebastian falls in a bloody pool, where human limbs gradually come to the surface. Jennifer and Sebastian have a lot things in common, their innocence and purity of mind being the most obvious and most crucial for the development of their stories. Just like Jennifer sleepwalks unwillingly, Sebastian finds himself wandering inside Ruvik's mind, both unable to escape for as long as these situations last. But while Jennifer's fall in the symbolic Hell happens at the end, marking the start of the catharsis process, Sebastian's fall in a similar Hell takes place at the start, dragging him deeper and deeper in the monster's twisted mind.

Sebastian in the bloody pool

Profondo Rosso (Deep Red, 1975) is another emblematic movie by Dario Argento, which is much gorier than Phenomena, but its main theme is that of mystery and suspense. Horror in Profondo Rosso is created primarily by the feeling of unknown and a disturbing sense of insecurity caused by the constant fear that someone is watching from a well-hidden spot, while the extravagantly violent scenes are used as a frame that essentially holds both the characters in the film and the viewers in the grip of Argento's very unique view of a thriller movie. Set around a series of particularly gruesome killings, the film follows Marcus, a musician who witnesses one of the murders, as he investigates the case to which he gradually seems to be connected in a rather weird way. The movie contains one of the most shocking twists in cinema history, which does not have to do with the identity of the killer, but with how said killer is revealed in a very early and completely unsuspected sequence in the story. 

 

Marcus suspects that he might know the killer

 

Profondo Rosso is definitely not recommended for the average viewer, but to this day it remains an exemplary piece of cinema art, blending masterfully its extremely gory scenes with exploration of mystery at its finest. It is films like this that defined the horror movies that would follow, as well as survival horror games. Resident Evil 3 makes a great tribute to both this exquisite film and its genius creator, by naming a secondary but rather important character Dario Rosso (his name from the director's name, and his surname from the movie's title). He is the civilian whom Jill finds locked in his van at the start of the game, and she tries to persuade him to follow her to safety, but he insists to stay in his hiding place in a panic state. The interesting thing about him is that his fate is unknown, as we do not have another chance to meet him and we can never be sure whether he survived or zombies got to him in the end and ate him alive. In the sequence where he appears, Dario Rosso represents all the panicked civilians who found themselves all of a sudden in a zombie-ridden city, not knowing what caused all this, and with a vague, dark and cut-short future awaiting them.

Dario Rosso is about to hide in his van forever

David Lynch is yet one more film-maker whose influence can be seen in almost all aspects of artistic expression. The creator of the famous Twin Peaks series is also responsible for some of the most impressive and exceptional artschool movies of contemporary cinematography, his trademark being the use of connotations combined with the stream of consciousness way of story narration. Lynch's dreamy landscapes and environments are presented as tangible depictions of artistic inspiration, often deliberately appearing as theatrical sceneries or backstage setups, with the director breaking the fourth wall in the most inventive ways and playing with the deepest layers of his heroes' psyche while at the same time challenging the subconscious of his audience.

Inland Empire (2006)

The iconography in Lynch's films is one of the most complex and cryptic, but somehow the ingenious director manages to unlock your mind, leading you to interpret what you see in more than one ways. A master of interior settings, where rooms symbolize the grey matter or the psyche, his movies are highly intellectual and most of them follow a "circular" route. The most characteristic of this kind of cinematography is his masterwork Blue Velvet (1986), a movie with an affinity of layers, and one of those that challenge you to watch them multiple times, and every time with a new perspective. In the film's iconic opening sequence, young and innocent Jeffrey finds a severed human ear in the middle of a field. After taking the macabre finding to the police, he gets entangled in a twisted web of mystery, terror, lust and betrayal, meeting people that seem to belong to a completely different world than his, a world that scares him but which at the same time he finds too attractive to ignore. Heavily inspired and influenced by Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (tales that are almost always referenced in his movies), Lynch explores multiple themes in Blue Velvet, one of them being the loss of innocence and the emotional coming-of-age of his hero. The cut ear functions as a passage, just like the rabbit hole did in Alice in Wonderland and the mirror in Through the Looking Glass. For both Alice and Jeffrey, going through these passages is a kind of rite, after which they are called to face the complexity of the human nature in literal and symbolic ways. The ear in Jeffrey's case literally drags him into its labyrinth and leads him to another maze, this time of the real or not so real world in which he finds himself. Set in an idyllic countryside bursting with bright colors, Jeffrey's journey is a nightmare which seems to always bring him in the same central point.

Jeffrey holding the severed ear

A photo of a human ear is one of the pictures that Sebastian sees during the introductory sequences of The Evil Within 2, when he enters Stefano Valentini's disturbing gallery that is spread all around his mind palace. The ear is not a random choice there; Stefano's method of intimidating his potential victims starts with him triggering the sound of a musical piece by Tchaikovsky, heard in such a distorted and haunting way that the beautiful music has an overwhelming paralyzing effect. Stefano "catches" people with sound first, subsequently dragging them into his twisted world, similarly how the cut ear in Blue Velvet caught Jeffrey's attention and eventually lured him in places unknown to him until then. And Sebastian, who shifts between realities through a mirror, simulates Alice's rite of passage through the looking glass, which again identifies with Jeffrey's passage through the ear's labyrinth.

The photo of the ear in Stefano's gallery

Lynch's environments in the Twin Peaks world are iconic dreamscapes, specifically the Black Lodge or Red Room which functions as a virtual meeting place between the protagonist Dale Cooper and select key characters from the series and movies. Comprised of an almost empty space with just a few pieces of furniture and strange shapes on the floor, the Red Room is, as its name suggests, a room where the red color dominates: its walls are fully covered with red curtains and the geometrical pattern on the floor is in fact white and red zig-zag lines. The furniture is three black armchairs, a table, two lampstands and a replica of the statue of Aphrodite of Melos. The room, existing in Dale's mind, functions as a meeting place where he has discussions with people that he had known at some point in his life and played a critical role in certain events that he was involved in. 

Dale Cooper with the Dwarf and Laura Palmer in the Red Room

The Red Room, being essentially Dale Cooper's mind palace, is referenced in the interior of the Grand Theater which is Stefano Valentini's mind palace in The Evil Within 2. A huge building with red curtains hanging from the ceiling and covering parts of its walls, sometimes revealing secret doors behind them, it is a labyrinthine network of rooms where the red color dominates, with certain corners being set up in the style of Dale's Red Room. In both the Twin Peaks' Red Room and The Evil Within 2's Grand Theater, the red color dominates, often making contrast with another color that is among Lynch's preferred ones, which is the bright blue. Stefano in The Evil Within 2 can be seen wearing a blue-mauve suit, and wherever he appears, the environment around him is colored with red and blue shades.

The red curtains are dominating Stefano's mind palace

 

From his part, Stefano Valentini, who uses his camera as a murdering tool, alludes to one of the most creepy characters that David Lynch has conceived, which is the Mystery Man from Lost Highway (1997). A difficult, highly intellectual movie, one of the most riddling and complex that Lynch has directed, it features an array of enigmatic figures, his puzzling protagonist included. The Mystery Man is a secondary character who, however, plays a key role in the main hero's story, although both his appearance and his actions remain partly unexplained till the end. He has a camcorder which he uses to record incriminating events from the protagonist's life, aiming at exposing his double nature. It is notable that the Mystery Man, in his turn, has his origins in another iconic character, Mark Lewis from Michael Powel's Peeping Tom (1960), who used his camera to take shots that satisfied his well-concealed sick psyche.

Mark Lewis (left), the Mystery Man (center) and Stefano Valentini (right)

Close to the ending of The Evil Within 2, Sebastian and one of his allies have to cross a path that is consumed by flames so as to reach the hiding place of one of the story's villains. It is one of the most difficult and challenging parts of the whole game, and the first time that you go through it, you are rewarded with an achievement titled "Fire Walk With Me", which pays homage to David Lynch as this phrase is the title of his 1992 movie that is part of the legendary Twin Peaks storyline. This alone signifies how influential Lynch's films and overall artistic approach have been in the game's creation. Lynch, in his turn, has been influenced by Dario Argento's aesthetics when it comes to the use of colors as means to highlight plot points and character traits, and the symbolic nuances that both characters and environments can carry, elements that both directors handle masterfully, which is one important reason why their works are favorite points of reference in so many video games.

See also:

» References to Dario Argento

» References to David Lynch

Doors As Passages In Video Games

If we examine video games as a contemporary and unique form of artistic expression - which they actually are - we could classify them as modern fairy tales. While many of them carry a good amount of realism in their plots, their stories are usually based in elements of fantasy, science fiction or post-apocalyptic theories. In the Devil May Cry universe, we may have a modern-day environment as a setting, but there are demons hiding in every corner. Or take, for example, Lara Croft's adventures: although rich with historical facts, the games of the Tomb Raider series feature a good deal of fantastic elements that are in perfect balance with their realistic aspect.

The main characters in Action games are brave heroes who fight their way through hordes of enemies and obstacles, while they must also solve several tricky puzzles. Puzzles and riddles in video games are among the strongest references to fairy tales, especially those which result in opening doors. Just like in fairy tales, doors several times open with magic means or keys - either literal keys or objects used as keys - that need to be obtained by going through generally difficult trials. Similarly, in video games doors are passages: they lead the heroes one step further, to another part of the world, where, usually, a revelation or a fight awaits.

Resident Evil HD Remaster takes place in a huge villa, the Spencer Mansion. The main characters, Chris and Jill, together with their team, seek refuge inside the house at the start of the game and it is impossible for them to get back out, as there are ominous threats awaiting. Early on, they discover an imposing metal gate at the back of the main hall, which seems to be their only way out of there. The gate is locked and requires two key items in order to open. The biggest part of the game consists in exploring the mansion, which is full of zombies, monsters and traps, so as to find said items. The door needs two identical objects made of stone and metal which can be placed on two receptacles on the metal bars, serving as keys. The first object is found in a crypt in the back yard of the mansion, but actually opening the crypt and being able to unlock the coffin that contains the object requires a lot of searching and solving more riddles. Interestingly enough, they are only able to look for the second object once they have found the first, as they have to unlock another door with it, gaining access to another huge area at the back of the mansion, which has to be explored. The second object is made of two separate components: the metal object, which is found in a locked office of the mansion, and the stone ring, which is hidden in the secret cabin of Lisa Trevor, a girl who is now roaming the grounds of the mansion in the form of a hideous monster. Once both stone and metal objects are found, they can be placed on the metal gate and now Chris and Jill are able to proceed to the eerie undergrounds of the mansion.

Opening this gate and stepping out marks the transition to a world where all the horrors that they have already met in the mansion, are now intensified. The fact alone that the keys to open this door are so hard to find is a strong indication that what lies beyond it is extremely dangerous. The powers that dominate those grounds are inconceivable, and Chris and Jill have to use both their physical and mental strength in order to survive.

In Resident Evil 2 Remake, the main characters, Leon and Claire, are trapped in a similar situation. They find themselves in the imposing and mazey Police Department of Raccoon City and, as they cannot get out on the streets that are filled with zombies, they have to look for another way. Following the notes of a deceased police officer, they find out about the existence of a secret passage that is located just beneath the huge goddess statue that decorates the main hall of the station. They need to find three medallions and place them on the pedestal of the statue so as to reveal the passage. The three medallions are locked in their receptacles on three statues that are found in equal areas of the station. The Lion statue, which holds the Lion Medallion, is on the balcony overlooking the main hall, the Unicorn statue, which holds the Unicorn Medallion, is on a lone gallery outside the Library, and the Maiden statue, which holds the Maiden Medallion, is in a secluded section of a storeroom, also next to the Library.

Finding the medallions is not a very hard task per se, but it becomes quite tough due to the several zombies and monsters that wander in the corridors of the station. Every time that a medallion is placed on the pedestal, one part of the secret opening is revealed. Once all three medallions take their place, Leon and Claire discover a small metal gate that leads to a secret round room, just beneath the statue.

What is ironic is that although this passage is supposed to lead to a way out, there are more riddles lying ahead, the danger becomes even bigger and our heroes will have to struggle a lot more before they are able to leave the station. The underground however becomes the place where both Leon ad Claire meet their allies, Ada and Sherry respectively, and from that point and on they will not be completely alone in their quest.

In Resident Evil: Code Veronica, there are several doors that need a special key or item in order to open, however it is two of them that are particularly interesting. The first is the elaborately decorated door in the Secretary's room that leads to an isolated area of the Ashford mansion. Its upper section is a huge receptacle where two identical guns, the Gold Lugers, need to be placed for it to unlock. The quest for these guns is rather complicated, and it will be a long time before Claire, the main protagonist, is able to use them on the door after she finds them. Even from their first appearance, the Gold Lugers are connected to trouble. They are found in the back room of the Armory in the mansion, and as soon as Claire takes them down, a trap activates and the room fills with poison. Being forced to place them back, she seems to have no way of retrieving them so as to open that door. A bit later, Steve, her partner for this story, finds himself in the Armory and, being attracted by the shiney pistols, takes them off the wall. The room again fills with poison but Steve panics and does not consider placing them back. Claire arrives just in time to unlock the trap from the outside, and so Steve runs out safely with the guns, which he refuses to give over to Claire. It will not be very long however before Claire offers him a pair of loaded Submachine guns in exchange with his Gold Lugers. Steve gladly makes the trade and so Claire is able to finally place the Lugers on the door and get it to open.

This door stands for a major passage in the story, as it opens to a secret office which, in turn, leads to a hidden palace where Alfred, the game's minor villain, lives a life of paranoia and illusion, playing the roles of both himself and his deceased twin sister, whom he adored. Thus it is not random that Claire needs a pair of twin guns to open the door. The world beyond the Luger door is that of a sadistic madman who impersonates his dead sister and finds extreme pleasure in making innocent people suffer. In connection to this comes the second door that stands out, which is located in the Morgue. Technically not a door, but a secret passage that is revealed beyond a raised wall, it opens by placing a glass eye on a life-size anatomy model. Claire has to kill a doctor who has become a zombie, take his glass eye and place it on the model, thus gaining access to the basement of the Morgue, where she comes across a horrifying room with torture machines.

In Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Claire finds herself before yet one more puzzle that involves a locked door and an eyeball. This time, things are more complex and the door in question has a retinal scanner which needs a specific artificial eye in order to unlock. Claire finds the eye in a trapped room inside a factory but she first needs to replace it with a glass eye so as to be able to take it without activating the trap. She must then use the eye on the retinal scanner outside the locked door so as to gain access to the nearby slaughterhouse.

What is interesting about this puzzle is that it opens the way and is connected to another puzzle that also has to do with a locked door that requires a special kind of key item. The same artificial eye has to be used on another retinal scanner outside an office, where Claire finds a liver replica. Later, in the slaughterhouse, she has to find another liver replica and use them both to open another door. While the first liver replica is in plain sight inside a corpse in the factory, the second is stuck in a bucket of blood in the gory slaughterhouse. Some kind of mincing machine above it has to be operated a few times, so that enough quantity of blood fills the bucket, allowing the liver replica to be released. The two liver replicas have to be placed then on a statue of Prometheus that blocks a door in the yard of the factory and the slaughterhouse. Doing so, causes the statue to explode, thus revealing the door that leads to another part of the factory where a tense timed event takes place.

Apart from being a passage leading closer to Alex, the story's villain, the Prometheus door has yet one more major significance. Alex uses both Prometheus and the livers as symbols, to hint at the fate of a man who turned out to be a traitor, both to her and Claire. Neil, Claire's boss and friend, secretly worked with Alex, aiding her in her evil plans, but at some point attempted to betray her, so she punished him, injecting him with a virus that turned him into a monster. In the myth, Prometheus was punished for stealing divine power, by being bound to a rock while an eagle would come every day and feed on his liver, which would grow back overnight and this torment would go on eternally. Alex identifies herself as a God and Neil as Prometheus; and the liver parts being replicas signify Neil's false faith to both Claire and Alex. Given that, soon after going through that door, Claire finally faces Neil in his monster form and has to fight with him, the passage revealed by it gains a very important symbolism, at the same time serving as a foreshadowing of what is about to happen.

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a door opening with a retinal scanner reveals a hidden elevator which leads straight to the lab where Burke, a very dangerous and twisted man, uses prisoners as lab rats. Adam, the protagonist, watches Burke using his augmented artificial eye on the scanner and then, following instructions, he steals a new replacement eye from Burke's office, all the while hiding from the guards who are looking for him. He then visits a technician who fits the eye on him, so that he is then able to use the retinal scanner himself and subsequently open the door.

While the passage that the door reveals brings forward a terrifying truth about the man involved, at the same time it becomes a means of salvation, as Adam then has the option to save the prisoners and the doctor who was forced by Burke to carry out the experiments on his behalf. In that sense, opening that door affects positively the lives of several people, including Adam, as he was himself a prisoner of Burke and possibly one of his potential victims.

In Resident Evil 4, Leon, the main protagonist, uses the false eye of Bitores Mendez, a minor villain, to open the gate that leads to Salazar's castle. He first must fight with Mendez in a barn and defeat him, so as to be able to take his eye and unlock the door with it. Although there are several doors in the game that open with impressive puzzles, this specific one is of a very high importance because it marks a passage from on world to another. Up to that point, Leon was wandering in the country, and the enemies he had to face were ignorant victims that had been turned into puppets in the hands of the evil Lord Saddler. By opening the castle gate and getting inside, he finds himself in a place where time seems to have stopped and from where there seems to be no obvious way out. Everything inside the castle looks like it belongs to past times, and even Salazar himself is dressed in a style that goes quite a few centuries back. Additionally the enemies, although of the same kind as the villagers, seem to have a certain level of intelligence and they are much more dangerous and bloodthirsty. The castle is full of traps and monsters and the trials become tougher in every new area.

In Resident Evil 7, Ethan, the protagonist, finds himself trapped in the house of Jack Baker's family whose members became deranged, following their infection by a degenerative virus. The exit door, which will temporarily offer him some freedom, is of course locked and needs three special items in order to open: three dog heads that are hidden in certain areas of the house. The blue head is hidden inside a book and it is the easiest to find. The white head is hidden in a grandfather clock and requires another brief puzzle to get it. The red head involves a long and dangerous exploration of several areas of the house, resulting in a terrifying boss fight with Jack Baker himself. Once all three dog heads are placed on the door, it is unlocked and Ethan can get out, although he has a long way to go before he is finally free.

The creature with the three dog heads that is depicted on the door is Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gate of Hades in ancient Greek mythology. While the Baker house is no less than Hades itself, the real nightmare begins once Ethan steps outside. Cerberus in this case is not guarding the entrance, but the exit; and in that sense, the passage that is offered to Ethan after he unlocks the exit door is one that is set up in such a way so as to lead him to his death.

In The Evil Within, Sebastian, the lead character, gets trapped inside the mind of Ruvik, a genious madman with a painful past, and finds himself wandering in places connected to his memories. The most prominent one is Ruvik's family home, where the dark secrets of his past are gradually revealed. There is a huge door in the main hall, that Sebastian has to open so as to proceed deeper inside Ruvik's mind, and to do so he has to carry out three simple Phrenology tasks. There are three Phrenology tables in the house and on each one there is a human head with the brain exposed. Sebastian has to hit a specific part of the brain with each probe, and if done correctly, blood flows away from a tube above each table, filling a similar tube on the locked gate. Once all three tubes fill with blood, the door opens.

As the story of the game has to do with mind games, it is not random that this specific gate is like a simulation of the brain: during the Phrenology tasks, Sebastian hits the sections of fear, hope and consent, which send the blood flowing in the tubes on the door. The gears on the door then start moving all together, unlocking it, just like the human emotions keep the brain's gears working. It is a concept that is as complicated as it is ingenious. The passage that is revealed beyond the door is literal: it is a long passage, a hallway, where Ruvik awaits to lure Sebastian even deeper in his memories, leading him to the root of his life's tragedy.

In The Evil Within 2, the gate that dominates as a major point of transition is not an actual door but more like an artificial barrier, made up of barbed wire and two framed photos depicting two girls in a macabre setting, that seem to be surrounded by an aura of black magic: they have flaming blood around them and they are impossible to touch. This peculiar installation is the morbid work of Stefano, a twisted photographer who is able to control Union, a virtual environment made especially for the people taking part in STEM, a nightmarish experiment aiming at controlling minds. Sebastian has to find a way to destroy the gate, in order to enter the Theater, where Stefano is hiding, and fight with him.

Stefano is like a magician; and as such, he creates illusions. Sebastian has to apply reverse magic in order to make the illusions disappear. In reality, or at least in the twisted reality of STEM, there is no tangible barrier in front of the theater. The two framed photos that block the way forming a makeshift gate are not really there. The first one is in the back room of a bar and the second is at the end of the upper corridor of a hotel. Sebastian has to locate them, literally get in their interior and destroy them from the inside. By doing this, their illusions in front of the theater shatter and disappear. The "magic" that Sebastian performs so as to fight Stefano's evil tricks is basically the opposite of what Stefano did. Simply put, Stefano made the photo artworks and Sebastian destroys them. What Sebastian does is like a voodoo process: he "kills" the essence of the photos, stabbing the frozen corpses that form them, just like a voodoo magician sticks pins on his dolls, resulting in hurting the person that those represent.

Is Resident Evil: Revelations 2 a Tribute to Alan Wake?

Alan Wake, the thriller game from 2010 about a struggling writer and his dark side, seems to have been a heavy influence for Resident Evil: Revelations 2; and despite the differences in the theme and the plot, the two games seem to have many things in common. Although it could be that it's just a matter of simply using elements from a game to make another, the way Revelations 2 is set and said elements are implemented, looks more like paying a tribute to Alan Wake, deliberately giving out vibes that echo Remedy's epic game.

The story in Alan Wake revolves around Alan, a successful young writer who is suffering from writer's block. To help him out, his wife, Alice, who is an established photographer, convinces him to take a vacation in an idyllic town by a lake in the mountains. The couple makes the journey, but as soon as they arrive at the town, strange things start happening and all of a sudden Alice disappears after seemingly falling in the lake. Meanwhile, Alan is tormented by nightmares and scary voices that threaten him, things that go on continuously as he begins his quest to find his wife. However the case is much more complicated and metaphysical, and goes back a very long way.

In Revelations 2, Claire Redfield and Moira Burton, members of the Terra Save organization which offers all sorts of help to victims of bio-terror, are abducted along with other co-workers and find themselves in a mysterious island which is occupied by monsters. The story follows their deperate attempt to escape while at the same time looking for clues that will possibly reveal the truth behind this situation. Later on, Moira's father, Barry, arrives at the island to find his missing daughter and meets a little girl, Natalia, who seems to know her ways in the place and helps him in his quest.

The episodic structure

Alan Wake, having David Lynch's legendary series of the '90ties, Twin Peaks, as a constant reference, is split in episodes which are introduced with a special title.

Revelations 2 uses this structure as well.

Each time a new episode starts in Alan Wake, there is a brief presentation at the beginning, summarising the previous events, like in a serial.

The exact same things happens in Revelations 2. Incidentally, the same episodic structure had been used in the first Revelations game as well.

Bookworms

Alan Wake's eponymous hero is a writer. The game is based on this fact, and all the files that you find scattered around the areas are pages of his manuscript.

Revelations 2 is based on Franz Kafka's works, and there are several direct and indirect references to him, his life and his books throughout the game (check this article for details). On a few occasions, you come across notes and files that feature segments from his works.

A broken bridge

Near the very beginning of Alan Wake, the hero is having a terrifying nightmare, during which he finds himself on the edge of a broken bridge.

In the first episode of Revelations 2, Claire Redfield and Moira Burton escape the mysterious prison where they were held and cross a bridge, part of which collapses soon after.

The darkest forest

The story of Alan Wake takes part in Bright Falls, an idyllic fictional town in the mountains. A huge part of the action takes place in dark forests which are occupied by evil powers. The atmosphere in these sections is compelling and particularly creepy.

There is only one specific stage in Revelations 2 that involves a forest (a relatively brief part in Barry Burton's Episode 1), but the overall setup and feel of this section are strikingly similar to Alan Wake, with the eery darkness and the horrific monsters hiding under the bushes or behind the trees.

A fishing village

Bright Falls is a mountainous town built on a lakeside. There are several references that identify it as a fishing region, like the trout trophies spotted in the tourist cabins, or the bass that the doctor got, or the 'Fresh Sea Food' building on the harbour. The town, although still inhabited by humans, is possessed by dark powers.

In Revelations 2, after Claire and Moira escape from their prison, they arrive at a fishing village which is abandoned and occupied by mutated monsters.

A ghost town

Still on the high mountains, Alan has to cross a ghost town in order to reach a specific area. This ghost town is very creepy, and has poltergeists to go with.

Claire and Moira in Revelations 2 go through a post-apocalyptic ghost town after leaving the fishing village. There are mutated dogs and humans in almost evey step they make there.

Possessed enemies

The evil power in Alan Wake is the Dark Presence, a mysterious supernatural force, which is able to possess both humans and inanimate objects. The possessed humans are called 'The Taken' and they are victims of the Dark Presence, as it possessed them to make them act like vicious villains. The Taken have no mind of their own, and they are always ready to attack.

The enemies in Revelations 2 used to be regular everyday inhabitants of the island where the story takes place, but they were tangled in the evil web of an evil mastermind that mutated them into terrifying monsters. They are called 'The Afflicted' and although their look is different from that of the Taken, they move in a pretty similar way.

The Taken in Alan Wake are extremely lethal in their attacks, and they are able to even kill Alan with just a couple of hits on certain occasions. They usually carry blunt weapons with which they don't hesitate to hit him hard.

The Afflicted in Revelations 2 attack in similar ways, either with their bare hands or with the pieces of iron and metal that are attached to their arms and forearms.

Some of the enemies in Alan Wake are very tall and huge, and they appear yielding an axe. They used to be loggers (later in the game, you come across similarly looking and moving enemies which may have been policemen or other workers), but it's unclear why they became so monstruous in size after they got possessed.

In Revelations 2, there is a special kind of enemies that are similarly huge and tall, and they carry an axe; only these here have an iron head (which is why they are called Ironheads), and they look like cousins of the Pyramid Head from Silent Hill. The way they move is identical to that of the huge loggers in Alan Wake.

Many times in Alan Wake, the enemies will come charging at you, preferably in groups so that you can't get away easily.

This is a tactic that the enemies in Revelations 2 are also following, as it is guaranteed to scare the hell out of you.

The Taken can surprise Alan by jumping onto him and hitting him.

The Afflicted do something pretty similar, but they are able to jump even higher (ex-acrobats, maybe?)

The weak point of the Taken is that they can't stand the light. Once you shine a light onto them, they become blinded for seconds, they lose much of their power and become disoriented, and then you are able to kill them very easily. The best and most direct way to expose them to light, is to point your flashlight towards them. The flashlight is an essential tool in Alan Wake, and it is his most necessary item.

The Afflicted in Revelations 2 are not so vulnerable to light, but when Moira points her flashlight on their faces, they get blinded, so they become incapacitated for a brief period of time, during which you can attack them and kill them without putting yourself in danger. In the game, Moira refrains from using firearms, and the flashlight is one of her essential inventory items.

Mysterious crates

During his quest, Alan finds several crates which carry valuable supplies, like ammunition and flares. These crates are not always in obvious places, but there are signs that you can follow so as to find them.

In Revelations 2, there are military crates scattered around, which contain goodies like custom parts to upgrade your weapons. These crates can only be opened by Moira.

Barry and Barry

Alan Wake's agent is called Barry Wheeler. He appears soon in the game and after some point, he accompanies Alan for some time. Barry doesn't play an important part in the main game, but his role changes significantly in the special episode 'The Writer' where he is a prominent character in Alan's nightmare.

There is a Barry in Revelations 2 too, although of course Barry Burton had been already a well-known character in the Resident Evil series. But it's interesting that he re-appeared in this game, which shares so many other similarities with Alan Wake. Barry Burton is a protagonist in Revelations 2, sharing the lead role with Claire Redfield.

Imprisoned

In a turning point in Alan Wake, Alan and Barry find themselves locked in a prison. Soon they get released though, by the sheriff herself, who also helps them a lot subsequently.

In Revelations 2, Claire and Moira wake up in a prison, after their abduction. Soon their cells are mysteriously unlocked, but it will be a long way before they are able to leave.

A pair of horns

Bright Falls obviously has many deer; there are nymerous deer trophies in the town, and there is also the famous Deerfest that the residents are having every year. There are moose horns used as decoration in a few places as well, preferably above doors.

In the Wossek Inn in Revelations 2, where the Terra Save members are gathered, there are moose horns above the exit door.

Any requests?

The first place that Alan visits in Bright Falls is the Oh Deer diner. In a corner of the diner, there is an old juke box.

In Revelations 2, there is an old juke box in the Wossek Inn.

While at the Oh Deer diner, Alan meets two old brothers, Odin and Tor Anderson, who used to be famous heavy metal musicians in their youth. When Odin sees Alan, he asks him to play a specific song on the juke box.

In Revelations 2, when the Terra Save members unite, they have a very brief moment of fun as one of them, Pedro, accidentally hits the juke box, which starts playing a random tune; Pedro then asks if they have any requests.

A haunted playground

After the sheriff of Bright Falls releases Alan from prison, the two of them have to cross the town in the darkness. At some point they reach a playground which, like most places, is occupied by evil.

Claire and Moira in Revelations 2 (and later Barry with Natalia), as they are making their way on the island and reach the town, they go through an abandoned playground where only monsters are left to play.

Logs everywhere

Bright Falls is in the mountains with forests all around it, so naturally there are lumber yards in the area. Quite early in the game, Alan arrives at a lumber yard where he has his first serious battle.

In Revelations 2, as Barry is approaching the fishing village with Natalia, he has to go through a lumber yard where evil monsters lurk.

A mine

One of the places that Alan visits during his quest, is an old mine, which now is actually a museum.

Barry and Natalia in Revelations 2, as they get closer to the conclusion of the story, arrive at an old mine which has both exterior and underground sections.

A chopper to the rescue

After leaving the Bright Falls prison with sheriff Sarah Breaker, Alan is reunited with Barry and the three of them get to the helipad where a rescue chopper is waiting to take them to their next destination. Sarah and Barry get in the chopper and Alan stays behind to fend off the arriving enemies while Sarah is making the necessary preparations for the chopper to take off.

When the Terra Save members are reunited in the Wossek Inn in Revelations 2, a co-worker of Claire's, Gabe, takes her and Moira up a hill where a chopper is. Gabe claims that if they could find a battery and some fuel, he would fix the chopper so that then they could use it to escape.

Alan and his friends fly off with the chopper, but as it is about to land, it gets attacked by possessed ravens. Alan falls off and gets separated from his friends, but a bit later the chopper appears again and accompanies him as he goes along. Soon after, however, it crashes, and Alan finds its remains in the forest. Thankfully, Sarah and Barry managed to survive.

In Revelations 2, Claire and Moira are separated from Gabe before they are able to get on the chopper. Gabe flies off with the chopper, but later, as he is about to land and get the girls, he gets attacked and the chopper crashes inside a building, killing him.

The athletic kind

When Alan and his friends go up the mountain on foot after the chopper crashes, Barry feels exhausted from all the hiking and comments that he shouldn't have stopped his gym membership.

In Revelations 2, after Claire and Moira leave the fishing village, they are reunited with Neil Fisher, their boss. At some point, Neil mentions that he can run fast due to his gym membership. Obviously he never cancelled it, unlike Alan's friend.

Wuthering heights

In Alan Wake's special episode 'The Writer', Alan has to ascend a lighthouse. The path leading to it is extremely dangerous, with narrow wooden boards hanging from the rocks above.

In Revelations 2, as Claire's story reaches its conclusion, she and Moira need to escape through an emergency exit of the collapsing Monument. The path they have to take is insanely hard, with wooden boards connecting its sections.

Gone

At the beginning of Alan's story, his wife disappears and after this happens, he has visions of her being dragged into the darkness while she desperately holds out her hand for help.

In Revelations 2, as Claire and Moira are about to leave the Monument, part of it collapses, trapping Moira under the debris. Claire can do nothing as she watches her friend lying helpless under the pieces of cement.

When Alan realises that Alice might have drowned, he quickly dives in the dark waters of the lake, hoping to find her.

In Revelations 2, after Moira gets trapped in the Monument, Claire finds the only exit and dives in the vast waters of the ocean below, hoping to get somewhere and look for help.

Wicked ladies

The evil power in Alan Wake is the Dark Presence, which manifests itself in the form of a woman, Barbara Jagger, who has many connections to Alan' story. She appears dressed in black, and although she shows up very early in the game, it's not until much later that you begin to associate her with the events.

In Revelations 2, the wicked mastermind is another woman, Alex Wesker, who is obsessed with Franz Kafka and is carrying out a twisted experiment, aiming at gaining the ultimate power for herself. Alex wears white, she first appears in a photograph, and later Claire and Moira bump onto her, just as she is about to commit suicide.

During his quest, Alan can hear the Dark Presence talking to him through Barbara, frightening and threatening him.

Alex in Revelations 2 identifies herself as 'The Overseer' and talks to her victims through bracelets that she has attached round their wrists.

An evil twin

At the very end of the main plot in Alan Wake, Alan finds out that he has an evil doppelganger, Mr Scratch. Mr Scratch appears determined to take Alan's place in all aspects of his life.

In Revelations 2, Alex manifests herself as a dark version of Natalia, Barry's little partner. Dark Natalia is Natalia's doppelganger and even in the good ending of the game, it's implied that she still exists in Natalia.