The Girl in the Closet

The Legend:
Everyone knows the feeling. You're alone in your house when you get the unmistakable sense that you're being watched. It's like you can feel another human presence in the house with you, even though you know you locked the doors and windows. This spooky trick of the mind is probably why so many of our ghost stories are about someone being inside our house. But that fear is irrational, right?

"Not quite"

The Truth:
A 57-year-old man living by himself in Japan began to notice small things wouldn't be where he'd left them. He'd wake up to strange sounds in the middle of the night, but every time he'd go and check them out, the door would be locked, the windows tightly shut. Nobody was there.

Was he losing his mind? To find out, he set up a series of spy cameras around his house. The next morning, he ran back the footage on the camera and that's when he saw it. A strange woman crawling out of a cupboard like it was the TV in The Ring. And if you think that's terrifying, imagine what happened inside his stomach when, at the end of the video, she crawled back into the cupboard. The one that was just a couple of feet away from where he was standing, watching the video.

Presumably in an effort to maintain bowel control, he called the police, who pointed out that all the locks on his doors and windows were undisturbed. There was simply no evidence whatsoever that anybody had broken in -- in other words (cue dramatic strings) the woman had been in the house all along.

After a thorough search, the woman was found huddled in a small cupboard.Apparently she had sneaked into the house and slept, ate and even took showers there for an entire year without being detected.

Think of all the things you've done in your most private moments. Now imagine a homeless Japanese woman had been watching it all. Yeah. Let that one sink in for a moment.

Sadako 3D

On  February 15 ,Kadokawa Pictures announced its upcoming lineup at an event held at the company’s newly opening theater in Yurakucho, Tokyo. Out of the newly revealed movies, one that garnered a lot of attention is the the tentatively titled “Sadako 3D,” featuring the famous character from the “Ringu” horror series.

“Ringu” was a big hit in Japan, spawning multiple films and television series. The first film in particular, released in 1998, was largely responsible for the revival of interest in Japanese horror films overseas, leading to remakes in the United States and South Korea.

 She will creep walk all over you

Sadako, identified by her long black hair covering her face, has become an iconic character in the Japanese horror genre. Koji Suzuki, the author of the original “Ring” novel series, indicated that the new 3D film will include a scene of Sadako coming out of a television set, similar to the original.

Suzuki wrote a completely new story for the movie. The director and the cast have not yet been revealed, but Kadokawa stated that the film is planned for release in 2012.

 Soon in your living room

Existence by Schopenhauer

Of every event in our life it is only for a moment that we can say that it is; after that we must say for ever that it was. What has been exists no more; and exists just as little as that which has never been. But everything that exists has been in the next moment. Hence something belonging to the present, however unimportant it may be, is superior to something important belonging to the past; this is because the former is a reality and related to the latter as something is to nothing. Our existence is based solely on the ever-fleeting present.


The scenes of our life are like pictures in a rough mosaic, which have no effect at close quarters, but must be looked at from a distance in order to discern their beauty. So that to obtain something we have desired is to find out that it is worthless; we are always living in expectation of better things, while, at the same time, we often repent and long for things that belong to the past.We accept the present as a means to accomplish our aim.


That human life must be a kind of mistake is sufficiently clear from the fact that man is a compound of needs, which are dificult to satisfy; moreover, if they are satisfied, all he is granted is a state of painlessness, in which he can only give himself up to boredom. This is a precise proof that existence in itself has no value, since boredom is meerly the feeling of the emptiness of life. Our existance would  not be a joyous thing unless we were striving after something; distance and obstacles to be overcome then represent our aim as something that would satisfy us - and illusion which vanishes when our aim has been attained. So that the first task is to win something, and the second, after the something has been won, it is time to forget about it, otherwise it becomes a burden.


Time is an element in our brain which by the means of duration gives us a semblance of reality to the absolutely empty existence of things and ourselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

There is one emotional state that I've never felt in a game - fear. Constant, gripping fear. Ask yourself, have you ever felt truly afraid in a game? Have you ever felt for yourself the imminent danger that the player character is supposed to be feeling? I can't say I ever have.

Until now.

The player takes the role of Daniel, the main character who wakes up in a dark castle with no memory of who he is or why he's there. That's the entire setup, and the simplicity of this concept lends itself brilliantly to the sense of isolation that Amnesia conveys so well.

When you run the game for the first time Amnesia gives a few statements as to how this game works:

-You have no access to weapons during the entire game, you must use your wits to avoid or hide from enemies.

-Don't stay in the dark for too long. Staying in the dark reduces your sanity.

-This game is meant to be played alone in a dark room. Turn the lights off and put headphones on.

Amnesia creates the best atmosphere I've ever seen in a videogame. The wonderfully disturbing castle combined with subtle visual and audio effects are seamlessly woven together to create something terrifying on a level I've never experienced before. On top of the aesthetic, the structure of play is designed to ensure that the player is always on edge since there is absolutely no fighting back against the various enemies encountered. This prohibition on combat creates a sense of helplessness that challenges every video game instinct I've had burned into my psyche.

You see, the first thing any gamer thinks when encountering an adversary is, "how do I kill it?"
That is the lesson we've had pounded into us. No matter what, the player always has some kind of weapon to use against the bad guys. Even in 'stealth' games there's usually a way to take out or at least avoid a given enemy. We're always in a position of power, to a certain degree.

Amnesia is different. The player is completely defenseless against the horrors of the castle. My only recourse when encountering a scary-looking thing was to literally run and hide, and hope that they would go away. 

The first time I actually encountered a monster, I ran and I hid. I wasn't thinking about killing it, I didnt look back to see what he looks like, I wasn't thinking about getting out of its line of sight, and I wasn't even thinking about how to get past it. I wanted to stay in my hiding spot in the dark where I felt safe. There was no thought other than "please just make him go away" crossing my mind. I could hear it getting closer every now and then, and sitting in the dark caused my character's sanity level to slowly drop, which in turn caused the screen to distort and cue disturbing sound effects.

That, my friends, is fear, and Amnesia is a game that invokes it like no other. The imagination is capable of dreaming up things that are more terrifying than anything conjured up on a screen, and Amnesia does an excellent job of screwing the player's imagination to a point where it exists in a constant state of abject terror.

Of course, that's not to say that hiding from some shambling monstrosity is all that Amnesia has to offer. The story and structure are brilliantly realized.  The story is fascinating and is told through easily digested chunks scattered through the game.  Read everything you find, and you'll be drawn into a chilling castle populated by a lone protagonist who is a bit off his nut and being hunted by shadowy somethings that are more than a teensy bit spine-chilling. Hints are also provided by flashbacks that regularly pop up out of nowhere.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is undoubtedly going to take a place among the most frightening horror games ever made. It is a touch short, although you can't gripe too much about that given the cheap 15 euros price tag as an online download.