The dark underbelly of the carnival has captured audience attention as an archetype of mystery in movies and games.
Halloween is a time when we collectively let our fantasies and worst fears loose, where fun and terror seem to blend together. One of the archetype backdrops for this special brand of scared is the carnival. What is it about amusement parks that make them so ripe for mystery and horror? Last August, vigilante artist Banksy created a whole installation called “Dismaland” in Somerset, England that used the carnival theme as a backdrop for some biting social commentary.
It might be because the era of the circus feels like an antiquated medium of entertainment compared to the latest 3D blockbuster or virtual reality, that the carousel and the funhouse seem decrepit next to shinier productions and big explosions.
Or maybe it’s that the whole enterprise of the amusement park is dedicated to manufacturing fun, and that human nature derives a certain amount of satisfaction from peering behind a happy curtain to find something monstrous. Historically, traveling carnivals were “home” to society’s outcasts where the public could project its fantasies and fears onto the pageantry.
Countless horror movies have chosen dilapidated theme parks as their backdrop, where the cheerful veneer of the big top tent peels to reveal something sinister. Clowns and freaks terrorize an adventurous group of teens, or zombies run amok with a charming calliope as background music. The ironic contrast of blinking lights and painted-on performer expressions juxtaposes with mystery and murder in a way that is totally arresting. And strangely fun.
Our sensibilities may have changed, but desire to get scared out of our wits is still there, perhaps even more articulated and elaborate in the digital era. With the tremendous strides that technology has made, stories, games, and photos have taken on such a life-like quality that it is hard to distinguish them from real life. The vicarious thrill of the chase, for example, has driven the gaming industry to whole new heights, and the level of interaction we experience is surprisingly heart pounding.
One standout in this strange subgenre of spook is Weird Park –Final Show, a gaming app by Alawar, where players must solve a bizarre abduction partly set in an abandoned theme park. A young boy is missing after entering his closet, and the whole community is up in arms trying to figure out what happened. Days after Patrick disappeared, aggressive animatronic toys suddenly invaded his house and authorities were forced to seal it off.
Unbeknownst to the whole town, the boy has been sequestered to an alternate dimension by the evil clown Mr. Dudley. Enter the dark arts of the carney folk.
The game takes you as an investigative journalist on an elaborate and unsettling adventure where reality and illusion are equally deceptive. Armed with your most powerful tool– your journal– you must retrace the missing boy’s last locations to an amusement park that is rife with clues and creepy characters.
Drawn in extraordinary lush detail with artfully eerie music, the Weird Park – Final Show app available on enabled for devices powered by Intel® Core™ Processors, is a serial critical thinking mystery wrapped in a carnival masquerade. The developers have gone to tremendous lengths to blend in black magic and 26 mini-games into 54 stunning environments taking players on a marvelous adventure. The perfect game for Halloween, solve the mystery of Weird Park – Final Show, visit: http://www.alawar.com/game/weird-park-the-final-show/.