Book review: Angel of Darkness

Having finally reached the point where Charles de Lint crossed over into my favourite genre, Horror, I have to say I was pretty excited about reading the first of the three horror novels he wrote under the pen-name of Samuel M. Key (also side note - his reason for choosing that particular pen name is near and dear to my heart!)

The first of the three novels, Angel of Darkness, feels an awful lot like the video game series Silent Hill - except for the fact that this book was published almost a decade before the first game in that series. The story follows the first responders to a horrible murder, who seem cursed to shift between their own world and two increasingly darker versions of the world after being exposed to the crime scene. (For non-gamers, the three shifting worlds is a pretty big part of any game in the Silent Hill franchise).

The open sequence is pretty gruesome, and may scare away readers, but trust me, if you can make it through the first chapter this is an intensely good read, forever keeping you off balance but playing fair in terms of a good horror novel.

The characters are well written, both good and bad alike, and the story definitely gave me a serious case of the heebie jeebies.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 18

Taking a step away from the films for a few days, lets look at some the other Saw-related media out there.

But first a little background.

1) In 1999 Konami released a survival-horror video game called Silent Hill (which in itself became the beginning of a series of games, comic books, movies, and novels), in which an "everyman" type character explored the frightening town of Silent Hill and sometimes slipped into a darker and more violent place.  Unlike it's most popular competitor in survival horror, the Resident Evil series of video games, Silent Hill focused on moody atmosphere and could best be described as psychological horror rather than the zombie-filled action horror of the Resident Evil series.

2) One year earlier, in 1998 the television series Felicity began airing which focused on the character of Felicity Porter (played by Keri Russell) as she attends college at the fictional University of New York, and throughout the series balances school with a love triangle involving two boys named Ben Convington and Noel Crane.  The first season ended on a cliffhanger, wherein Felicity had to choose between taking a road trip to California with Ben, or a trip to Europe with Noel.  Season two began with the knowledge that Felicity chose (mild, 13-year-old spoiler) the road trip with Ben.

Now, before you get upset and and start wondering why I'm filling my Saw blog with Silent Hill and Felicity, bear with me, It will all make sense I promise.

1a) Before season two of Felicity began, fans could buy a novel called Felicity: Summer which focused on her European trip with NOEL!?!  Which, of course, didn't happen (although the series does get involved in time travel later - seriously - so who knows, maybe it did?).

2a) Already considered one of the leaders of horror games in the video game industry, Konami began to look for a new concept which would further cement their hold on this sub-genre of video games.

Now, let's talk about Saw, for Playstation 3.  Like Felicity: Summer, Saw the game plays around with the franchise, taking place between Saw and Saw II, and featuring the character of Detective Tapp, who DIED in the first film, as the main character.  At the time of the games release, Saw VI was due out in about a month, so a game wherein the main character, who is clearly referred to as dead in the second film, somehow survives and gets to go through another bout with the Jigsaw killer may seem strange, but that is what players were met with.

The game looks an awful lot like Silent Hill, taking place in a largely-abandoned location, and with a very similar atmosphere, it is easy to make comparisons.  Also, having played through the first half of the game myself, it is probably the most fun I've had with a Saw-themed text since the first film.  The game is filled with timed mini-puzzles, and although it has a pretty high violence factor, the fact that you control the character makes it a heck of a lot more enjoyable than watching another half-dozen random characters get fed through death-manchines (sorry, Saw III - V).

So there you have it, even a passing familiarity with the series of films is all you need to enjoy the game, and as long as you are not put off by the onscreen violence, it was actually a lot more fun than I expected.

Also I got to put Saw and Felicity together for the first time on the web!

Things I've Noticed: It is not always cool when life mirrors a video game

I think we've all experienced a cool cut-scene or finale of a video game and thought - wow, that would be cool, I wish I could be in that game - saving that princess or squashing that mushroom or whatever.

The problem comes when you don't get to choose which game.

Today for instance, I woke up, rode my bike to work (a 45 minute ride which is awesome by the way), and everything seemed just fine. The air felt good, the sky was overcast, and there was a nice breeze (an arial view of the downtown core of my city below).

Throughout the day however, my world started resembling that of a video game - unfortunately that video game was Silent Hill.

Now before you start thinking about the horrible monsters that fill the game, or ghosts reflecting the sins of my past, I'm mostly talking about the weather. Due to forest fires in British Columbia my entire province is being covered in smoke - smoke which has dramatically reduced visibility, and for the bike ride home, had me heading across bridges where I couldn't see the other side - my pathway seemed to simply get swallowed up in the smoke. (the same area - notice the domed top of the Delta hotel, this afternoon, below).

It's kind of funny, I always assumed that the monsters and music of Silent Hill were what made that game scary, but after having my entire city covered in a cloud of oppressive smoke, I've got to say, the weather has a much bigger effect than you think.