Games That Haunt Us: Gothic Game Space as a Living Nightmare is an examination of how the Gothic appears in game space to interrogate an area of substantial importance to contemporary games, with a focus on environments, bodies, and defining the Gothic in games.
The Gothic, both as a literary and videogame genre has increased in prominence amongst literature, media, and culture scholars globally, as games studies becomes a more recognized and exciting field of study and as Gothic scholars find new ways to apply their works across emerging mediums.
But why have Gothic games risen in popularity since 2010? What do players feel when they play these games? Why are themes surrounding fraught identities, mourning, and monstrosity gaining so much attention? Games That Haunt Us investigates the very nature of the Gothic and how video games provide new ways of connecting with the genre. The scholars in this collection look at why Gothic games are having their moment of popularity, the unsettling themes they evoke in unstable times, why we are fascinated with death and decay, theories surrounding body horror, and how games transform avatars and ourselves.
Games That Haunt Us is arranged into three sequential themes: what makes a Gothic game; Gothic environments in game space; and how Gothic bodies are approached and utilized in ludonarratives.
Introduction Stephanie Farnsworth (University of Sunderland, UK) Part 1: Games and the Gothic 1. “Under Palest Watch, You Taught, We Changed”: Gothic Epistemology and Space in the Metroidvania Genre Jack Orchard (University of Oxford, UK) 2. “I Was Called Here by Humans Who Wish To Pay Me Tribute”: Remapping the Gothic Iterations of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997) in Videogame Discourse Jan Marvin A. Goh (University of Santo Tomas, the Philippines) 3. Scheme-Mother: Exploring Narrative Tension Through Southern and European Gothic Influences in Destiny 2’s The Witch Queen Kira Jones (Emory University, USA) 4. A Matter Not Yours: Gothic Metalepses and Determinist Horror in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone Andrin Albrecht (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany) 5. What They Don’t Know Can Hurt Them: Breeding Unease through Disruptive Design in Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Peter Howell (University of Portsmouth, UK) 6. Celebrating, Emulating, and Controlling Horror: Player Experiences with Cinematic Horror Video Games Christine Tomlinson (University of California, USA) 7. Elements of Horror in Board Games: Turning Cardboard into Horror Christos Yanos (Uppsala University, Sweden) Part 2: Gothic Environments and Walking with The Undead 8. The Mourning Tree: Attempting to Ontologise Remains in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture Kris Darby (Liverpool Hope University, UK) 9. Haunted, Hunted & Harrowed: Resident Evil 2’s Police Department Maze of Tension Eoin Murray (Falmouth University, UK) 10. An Avatar is Being Beaten: Sadism, Masochism and Haunting Ground Ewan Kirkland (University of Brighton, UK) 11. “This Cannot Continue”: Temporality and the Refrain in NieR:Automata Sian Tomkinson (Independent scholar, Australia) 12. “We Tuned into Something in the Cave”: Oxenfree’s Haunted Audio as Premediated Glitches Hannah Barton (University of Glasgow, UK) 13. Animals are Fine, but Their Acceptability is Limited: Player Agency and the Gothic in Cult of the Lamb James Shelton (Independent scholar, UK) 14. Animals, the Authentic and Gothic Fantasy Magnus Johansson (Lund University, Sweden) & Michael Rübsamen (Lund University, Sweden) 15. Eco-Cosmicism: Re-Reading Lovecraft in the Wake of the Climate Crisis Jemma Morgan (Independent scholar, UK) Part 3: Reanimating the Gothic Body through Videogames 16. “I Want A Girl” Outlast: Whistleblower, the Feminised Male Protagonist and Intergender Body Horror through the Gothic Horror Lens Thea Bamber (Roehampton University, UK) 17. Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice: Subverting Perception to Make Horror Jack Bridger (Independent scholar, UK) 18. Show Me Your Teeth: Monster Romance on Archive of Our Own Abi Johnson (Falmouth University, UK) 19. “God Doesn’t Love You. Not Like I Do”: Exploring Gender, Psyche and Godliness in The Outlast Trinity Zarin Rafiuddin (University of Leeds, UK) 20. A Seat at the (Round)table: Engaging with Elden Ring (2022) to Explore Queer Theory’s Social/Anti-Social Divide Greg Mc Guinness (University College London, UK) 21. From Ikkyu to Undertale: A Transnational Development of the Re-Animated Skeleton in Video Games James McCrea (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) 22. Upgraded Models: The Demise of the Clone in Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order Stephanie Farnsworth (University of Sunderland, UK) 23. Uncanny Identities in SOMA Kevin Veale (Massey University, New Zealand) Index
Stephanie Farnsworth is a PhD candidate at the University of Sunderland, UK. She is founder and Director of Events for MultiPlay, an international community of games scholars and researchers that hosts 4-5 online conferences each year. On the editorial board for MultiPlay, Stephanie is currently working on the Liberate Me Plenty anthology (2023) on queer game studies as well as a special edition journal on The Last of Us. Her research focuses upon ‘mutant theory’, expanding upon monster theory and examining the relationship audiences have to biotechnology. She writes about body horror, bodily transformations and biofuturism.
Reviews for Games That Haunt Us: Gothic Game Space as a Living Nightmare
Games That Haunt Us is a vital and unsettling collection that reveals just how powerfully the Gothic animates videogame worlds. From haunted environments to monstrous bodies, its chapters illuminate why Gothic games speak so urgently to our cultural moment. This is essential reading for anyone interested in games, the Gothic, or the uncanny intersections between the two. * Leighton Evans, Professor, Swansea University, UK, and editor of Virtual Reality Gaming: Perspectives on Immersion, Embodiment and Presence (2025) * In real life we avoid being scared, but for many of us we seek out that experience from our entertainment. With a specific focus on defining what makes a game Gothic, this collection considers what makes horror games so compelling. The chapters in it offer an engaging look at both the expected and unexpected games that frighten us, showing how prevalent Gothic themes are across games. As such, it is as useful for genre scholars as it is for horror aficionados. * Matthew Wysocki, Associate Professor, Flagler College, USA *
