Video Games

Virtual reality, alternate reality, and time travel are all really interesting subjects to me. All three contain elements of the uncanny. I feel that we frequently create alternate realities for many different instances--many 'what if'scenarios. These realities have the same laws as our own world, but we decide the outcome rather than living it and letting the reality create the outcome for us. The film, Primer, is a good example of this along with time travel.

The two main characters go back in time to create their alternate realities and make life play to how they want it to. For the viewers, everything is so confusing and jumbled up, we have a lot of difficulty following the film. It gives us an uncomfortable feeling of not really understanding what is going on, yet everything is changing due to these alternate timelines. After we see the doubles for the first time, that uneasiness really begins to settle in ourselves. The film pushes that uneasiness even further when we discover that the main characters are physically subduing their doubles in order to create their alternate realities.

We see these other-worlds in video games as well. With Limbo, everything looks familiar--trees and run down buildings exist along with people and bugs. However, there are massive spiders, angry people, and terrifying natural dangers which try to kill us. There is also an unsettling lack of ambient sounds in the game. There is almost no music. It is as if the game is trying to tell us that we are alone and that we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves.