Evil Dead II . . . Meet Thy Doom

THE RULES OF THE GAME: before him-and he revels in every gory detail. A sequel to Aliens: Aliens Meets the Demons of Hell? EVIL DEAD II ... MEET Or perhaps Evil Dead II in outer space? This is no THY DOOM filmspace. The horror ofthis story belongs to the cult computer game released by id Software in AllgelaNdaliants 1993: Doom: Evil Unleashed. Doom reveals the complex relationships that currently exist between entertainment structures. The cross-over between popular culture forms TheEvilIs Unleashed-s-Science Fiction such as films and computer games tests the clear andHorror Meet the Shoot-tent-Up separation between diverse media forms, and this Interdimensional doorways finally make possible overlap has ramifications for genre analysis. Hans space travel between the two moons of Mars: Iauss has argued that a genre's development in Phobos and Deimos. The Union Aerospace Cor volves both the repetition of previous conventions poration's research into interdimensional travel is within a genre, and the introduction of elements a success. Or is it? In a climactic series of events, that extend and alter those conventions. Each new things start to go terribly wrong. Some people addition to a genre calls upon "rules of the game," sent through the gateways disappear. Others re or sets of generic conventions, which are familiar turn from Mars's moons as zombies. Then the to the audience. These rules can "be varied, ex moon Deimos vanishes without a trace. Enter the tended, corrected, but also transformed, crossed hero-leader of a specialized team of space marines. out, or simply reproduced." I Genres are viewed as He sends his troops ahead ofhim through the in language games that can introduce radical changes terdimensional gateway; armed with a Space Ma within a category, even leading to the "transfor rine Corporation gun, he follows them through, mation into another genre through the invention but once on Phobos his worldview changes. The of a new 'rule to the game.'''2 One question that space marines have vanished. Instead, dark sur needs to be addressed is what happens when the roundings envelop him, and eerie, atmospheric "rules of the game" extend beyond the one me music accentuates the suspense-filled moments. dium? Do genres cross media borders? The marine leader begins to scour the corpor A more flexible account of genre's functions in ate installation in search of any living human be contemporary media would acknowledge the dy ing ... but it's not the living who come to greet namic interchange between various popular cul him. Seemingly out of nowhere, an array of bi ture forms. Genre films and computer games are zarre creatures charge down dim-lit corridors and not closed systems drawing purely on their own through automatic doors: zombified humans, de genre and media specific conventions. Their mons, imps, minotaur-like forms, evil spirits. And "meaning" also crosses into other media. Clearly, so it begins. He must explore the installation to audience familiarity with genres from related me find out what happened, then get the hell out dia is economically advantageous to computer of there at any cost! Picking up weapons along game and film companies. This is especially the the way, he attacks the monsters like a man gone case given the horizontal integration currently op berserk-with fists, chainsaw, gun, rifle, and mis erating across a variety of entertainment media.' silelauncher. His body takes a beating, but his vic Genre and media hybridization is crucial to creat tims also pay the price. Hundreds of those de ing a larger cross-over market. Economic moti monic bodies audibly erupt, explode, and splatter vations aside, this cross-over suggests that the 504 HOP ON POP boundaries ofour critical models must expand to sequel Doom II. The sequel was made possible be consider cross-media hybrids such as the "interac cause someone left open one of the dimensional tive" computer games Under a Killing Moon and doors. The result? Demons ofHell gained accessto Phantasmagoria. Not only do both these games de Earth. So, it begins again. We reprise our role as pend on mise-en-scenes and cinematography that hero and return to kick some more demon butt as owe a great deal to filmic modes of production, but we struggle to save humanity from being trans their very structures are influenced by film genres. formed into a population of zombies. The full dra Under a Killing Moon combines its game format matic-andat times horrific-effects ofthis story with detective, noir, and science-fiction conven would have been impossible to experience without tions, and Phantasmagoria is a combination ofthe the genre's technically innovative three-dimen psycho-killer and splatter horror films. sional graphics and texture and the atmospheric While the game Doom:Evil Unleashed does not sound effects; these effects added to the hypervio employ film production techniques in the way lent and hyperaction dimensionsofthe game. these other two examples do (including film ac Before Doom graced our computer screens, the tors and directors), the game does depend on game effectsofid software's WolfensteillJ-D (1991) player familiarity with science fiction and horror had transformed the two-dimensional game for conventions, especially those evoked by Aliens mat known as the "platform game" into a separate (James Cameron, 1986) and Evil Dead II (Sam genre known as the corridor game, or shoot-tern Raimi, 1987). As a superhybrid form that ruptures up genre. Before WolfensteinJ-D, platform games generic and medium-specific boundaries, Doom like Donkey Kong had stressed action that took has become the blockbuster success ofthe gaming place on a two-dimensional plane that ran parallel industry. Doom, and its equally addictive sequel to the computer screen. The layout of the games Doom II:Hell on Earth,introduced a filmic quality resembled a mazelike ant farm; the player navi to game spaces and thus helped to broaden the gated a two-dimensional, cartoonish character digital market. An analysis of the Doom games re through this maze while trying to avoid obstacles veals how film genres have extended and opened placed in his/her path. Corridor games like Wolf their borders; the "old rules" of the generic game ensteiny- D were instrumental in transforming this spill outward from films into new media products two-dimensional platform space into a more con such as computer games.' The Doom games cre vincing three-dimensional environment. Rather ated new generic rules and new audience re than moving characters across a series of plat sponses: not only did the games alter the rules of forms that ran parallel to the screen, the player the genre in their own medium, but their impact maneuvered them through a series of corridors; also reveals the potential computer games have for the corridor format stressed movement into the influencing the development of film genres. simulated depth of the computer screen space. In Doom we play the main protagonist (a ma The title "corridorgames" has recently been super rine). The aim ofthe game is to navigate this char seded by the term "shoot-lem-up'' (or first-person acter through the three worlds ofPhobos, Deimos, shooter) because shoot-tern-up action is the main and Hell to discover what went wrong with the in emphasis in much of the game play. The most terdimensional experiments. In the process, we common example of the corridor games, there must also destroy all monsters that come within fore, is these "shoot-tern-up," body count varia shooting distance. When (and if) we get to the tions that require the player to move through cor end ofthe game, we will have defeated the demon ridors shooting all enemies that come toward hordes, returning to Earth victoriously .. until the him/her. ANGELA NDALIANIS 505 However, even a game like wolfenstein 3-D spheric effects in the shoot-tern-up emphasizes (which was groundbreaking for its time) remains Iauss's argument that some new additions to a "unrealistic" when compared to Doom? Doom genre can alter the rules so much that a new genre further extended the conventions of the shoot can emerge. Working with the conventions of 'em-up. The differences between Doom and many of its shoot-tern-up predecessors, Doom Wolfellsteill 3-D are visible primarily in the ways introduced enough new rules to allow for a redi weexperience the environment that the hero, and rection in the aesthetics of the shoot-tern-up we, immerse ourselves. In most shoot-tern-ups we genre. The redirection cemented the break be adopt the view point ofthe main protagonist. The tween platforms and shoot-tern-ups instigated by player does not see the hero's entire body; often Wolfenstein3-Dand made possible our more con only his hands and the weapon he wields are vis vincing immersion into the game narrative spaces. ible at the bottom of the screen. The game play The game was also pivotal in broadening the logic is that our own body-which exists beyond conventions and expectations of the shoot-tern the computer screen - "fills in" the protagonist's up genre. Doom became the form that all shoot body. Despite the movement into a simulated 'em-ups would aspire to and was even compared three-dimensional space, in Wolfenstein 3-D the to other "classic" examples of other genres from cartoonish, two-dimensional articulation of that other media. As one review noted, "To describe three-dimensional space persists. We discover a Doom as a first-person perspective action adven game world based upon blocky, monotonous en ture would be like calling Blade Runner 'a film vironments composed of minimal color arrange about robots.' '' 6 ments and flat surfaces lacking in texture and The Doom duo triggered a craze in Doom-like attention to detail.

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