2020’s Zoom-set lockdown horror movie Host perfectly encapsulates the terror awaiting in modern communication technology, while, in games, Five Nights At Freddy’s and, more recently, Phasmophobia have turned flicking between security cameras into a nail-shredding art. Just an FYI, screaming ‘give me control’ doesn’t work but I did try it.Ī multi-camera horror set up can be a goldmine for scares. Here we sit powerless and occasionally get to make the choice to take a call or read an email but it feels like sitting out in the cold, watching a sub-par scary movie. Instead Night Book gives us an enticing laptop screen of files, programmes, and even alluring notifications and then hands the mouse to someone else. The almost voyeuristic thrill of piecing together our own story via a fictional operating system made Her Story unforgettable. This PC setting immediately draws parallels to Sam Barlow’s ludicrously compelling FMV game Her Story, where we use a programme’s search function to spool through hours of live video to uncover the truth in a series of police interviews. See? Red flags to match his red tie and Newton’s cradle. It’s here where we find out that her boyfriend has added her webcam to the couples’ multi-camera security system so we can constantly watch her reactions to the creepy goings on in the name of ‘keeping her safe’. All of Night Book takes place on a laptop as Loralyn loads up the BlackSky OS to log into her work account. The biggest shortcoming here is the term ‘interactive.’ Night Book’s binary choice-based narrative isn’t new but is particularly galling in this setting. If that sounds painfully short, it is, but that’s the least of Night Book’s worries. The interactive element comes from a series of binary choices that appear throughout its 55 minute run time. Insert your relatable Covid lockdown meme here. We join poor, pregnant Loralyn as she attempts to do an online interpreter shift from home while her occasionally possessed father bangs his head against a wall in a room of scary drawings, and her fiance waves red flags from another country as he plans to steamroller a protected mystical forest and turn it into a hotel. Night Book is an FMV, or Full Motion Video, experience, meaning it stars real actors in real sets, as part of an ‘interactive occult thriller’. READ MORE: ‘NEO: The World Ends With You’ review: A superb sequel that oozes cool.When found footage horror is done wrong, it’s Night Book. The boundaries between fiction and reality blur, spectral hands suddenly tearing down the safety net you’ve built in your brain, making you question everything you’ve ever known. When found footage horror is done right, the effect on your psyche is searing.
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