Clock Tower: The First Fear

My last post focused on what I consider to be a perfect game, making it the best game ever created. This time, I want to focus on another game, another old game(go figure) that manages to upstage just about everything out there today.

Clock Tower manages to be chilling from the very get-go, with this beautifully done title screen.

Clock Tower for the Super Nintendo is a survival horror video game( games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil belong in this category) that was created in 1995 by Human Entertainment. Clock Tower, unlike most games at the time( and games now for that matter), has a complex mature storyline that continues to fascinate me. A lot of Clock Tower's story ad character mechanics can be attributed to the game's main inspirational source: Italian Giallo horror movies of the 70's and 80's, particularly the films of Dario Argento(Suspiria, Deep Red, Phenomena...etc).

The reason for this post is this. How does a 16-bit video game for the Super Nintendo made in 1995 manage to be scarier, more frightening, more chilling, and more eerie than anything made before or after it? Well maybe before is a dumb question, but after?

There are a lot of aspects that contribute to this game's scare factor, so I'll start with the gameplay and graphics. First off, the graphics are among the best on the console, as well as anything produced during the whole decade. They're moody, atmospheric, dark and foreboding. And above all, they're subtle.

Library

Children's Room

Storage Room

The Mannekin Room...Why would anyone have a room like this?

 Now, onto the gameplay. Here's where it gets real interesting. Clock Tower is a survival horror game where you are never, not once, given a single weapon to defend yourself. The only way you can is by mashing something called "The Panic Button" and hope to overpower your enemy. This aspect alone makes it creepier and more nerve-wracking than just about every other horror game. The game is played with a point-an-click interface, meaning you use a mouse-like clicker to point where the main character can walk to, to pick up items, open doors...etc. This gameplay makes the game play out very slowly, which only aids to the game's already chilling atmosphere. The game has multiple endings and room that are randomized every time you play the game, making it harder, inducing paranoia, as well as adding that much needed replay value.

The story and characters though, is where this game really shines. First, let's meet our main cast:

From Left to Right: Jennifer, Lotte, Ms. Mary, Anne, Laura

Jennifer and her three friends, Lotte(her bestie), Anne, and Laura lived at granite orphanage until a wealthy man named  Mr. Barrows adopted them all. Ms. Mary picks them up and brings them to the Barrows Mansion, a sprawling abode with two wings and a large clock tower built into it.

The mansion.

While the girls are waiting in the main foyer, Ms. Mary leaves to fetch their new father. But when Ms. Mary doesn't return, the girl begin to worry. And thus, the most used horror movie trope is already sprung: they split up to look for her. In a mansion. A mansion they're not familiar with in the slightest. The game now begins.

How every horror movie starts.

You play as Jennifer, very obviously named and modeled after Jennifer Connelly, who appeared in Argento's Phenomena. Depending on the way you progress through the mansion and its many rooms, you are treated to various outcomes. Like if you visit one of the bathrooms first:

Your friend Laura.

Or another living room instead, where you find one of your friends stuffed in a suit of armor:

Good Grief Laura.

Or, you can come cross this scene first. In a scene straight out of Argento's Suspiria, the stained glass sky light buckles, it cracks and breaks, something falls out of it, and you're introduced to someone new. 

"Pleased to make your acquaintance!"

Meet Bobby, aka the Scissorman, a deformed child wielding a giant pair of garden shears. Boy would a weapon come in handy right about now. Only options are to confront the maniac, or run away and hide. 

Once you evade the little creep, you have a chance to explore the place where the game's story is told by all the rooms inside. In one room you can find a broken picture of two baby twins, who both look disfigured. Somewhere else you find odd ceremonial robes. Then you find rooms like these:

This mural looks bizarre.

What place do demonic rooms like these have in a house?  What's goin' on here? Where did Miss Mary go? In one scenario you do find the elusive woman, whom comforts and assures you that everything is okay. She gives you a drink to calm your nerves, and very soon you become sleepy and pass out. You then wake up here:

Who the hell is this guy?

This ragged old man reveals himself to be none other than Mr. Barrows. He then starts reciting cryptic messages.

I think I'll be leaving now.

One of your friends comes to your rescue and frees you from your cage just before meeting her untimely demise at the hands of Miss Mary and her double barreled shotgun. You proceed to knock out the wench and make your escape.

By running around the mansions network of rooms and labyrinthine corridors, you eventually can come across this room. Upon noticing a painted over wall, you break the wall open to find a hidden room. A hidden room containing a long dead man. 

This man is actually Jennifer's real father, Dr. Walter Simpson, who happened to have a journal with him:

11. 10. 1986.
This is the 3rd day I, Dr. Walter Simpson, have been in here.
I'll not last long.
Before I die, I will record this...

There are twin children who are a blemish on this world.
When the lady was to give birth, I was called to this house.
She gave birth to two child... no, demons.
When they were born, they ate my right hand.
They were ill, their bodies deformed... they should have died.
But they lived...
I should have tried to...
Breathing is painful.
The air in this room is already gone...
They are in a cradle under the star...

Jennifer...
Jennifer...
Jennifer...

This tells the fact that Miss Mary used poor Simon to give birth to twin demons, and then imprisoned Jennifer's father in a sealed room. Hmm, if Bobby is one of the twins, where's the other one? Maybe you've been running into twin scissorman all night!

Upon exploring the mansion even more, and having various inevitable run ins with that scissor-wielding brat, you come across a room that looks vaguely familiar.

Remember that Mural?

Some kind of demonic altar/place of worship no doubt. But hey look, there's a star on the floor. Remembering Simon's words..."Cradle under the Star"...hmmm. By reading books in the library and other religious room, you learn to place an idol atop the altar, or a scepter in the vase, which triggers a mechanism that opens a door in the middle of the pentagram on the floor. Nifty. 

You climb down the newly uncovered ladder to discover a complex system of caves and caverns which lead you to discover the meaning behind Simon's words. But what's in the cradle?

Meet Dan. Bobby's morbidly obese fetal zombie monster of a twin brother. Mary's been bringing innocent children into her deranged mansion to be murdered by Bobby, sacrificed at the altar, and used to be absorbed into this demonic corpse laden shell of a body. A shell containing another being. Getting on with it, the fat baby chases you, and you inevitably trip at least twice(another cardinal rule in horror films). You, being the clumsy oaf you are, knock a can of kerosene down a hill while trying to escape. The kerosene is lit by of the many candles lighting the cave, and sets the monster ablaze. 

Long story made, well a little less long, Jennifer escapes the caves, and is pursued by Scissorman up into the Clock Tower of the mansion. The girl turns on the mechanism, turning the gears, and making way too much noise for the scissor brat to handle. Bobby holds his ears in pain, and takes a dive, falling into the Clock Tower's gears and getting crushed to death. Mary sure is pissed now as she rushes for you with a knife, but if you hold your own in a fight, you knock her back and she gets electrocuted by the mechanism. Everyone but you is dead, and you live happily ever after. 

I know this was a needless long post, but whatever, I'm a nerd. But moreso, I wish newer games would take cues from what made these retro game so brilliant. But, I'm not an optimistic man, so I won't hold my hopes up.