Embodied Fear: Women in Horror Video Games
Diana Campos
Horror, indie, and psychological survival video games have always pulled me back in, ever since I first picked up a controller as a little girl. Each time I lost myself in a new, nerve-wracking story, I found myself drawn to the women at the heart of these worlds and how they were depicted. Jill Valentine in Resident Evil and Heather Mason in Silent Hill, for instance, stand as strikingly different examples of female agency. Their journeys made me question what roles women play in these stories and why. As the years passed, I kept noticing patterns: autonomy, authority, and the gaze fixed on female characters in horror and survival games. These themes have become the backbone of my exploration of what the real horrors are in a horror video game.
Graphic by Catleen Balaoing
In horror and survival games, female autonomy is often tied to the strong will to survive and the fight to reclaim one's sense of self while encountering monsters, real or metaphorical. These games frequently immerse players in horror themes and the violation of bodies, echoing real-world anxieties and stereotypes about female vulnerability and objectification. Too often, women are stripped of their agency, and their bodies twisted into spectacles, weapons, or haunting vessels that unsettle and disturb us, the players, within each game.
Most of the time, their bodies are turned into horror creations, and reproduction is turned into abject monstrosity. Like in Silent Hill 3, we experience themes of psychological suffering and real-world trauma through our character, Heather Mason. The cult inside the game demands to use her body purely as a vessel to deliver them a god, forcing her to be strictly used as a reproductive tool. Heather rejects these actions as she fights through the story, resisting being used as a spectacle and asserting her autonomy by defeating these evils.
To continue with Silent Hill 3’s storyline, we are immersed in themes of everyday anxieties faced by women, which resonate with societal issues and evoke shared experiences. Heather endures stalking and harassment, reflecting real-world predatory behaviors and the vulnerability women face. The game explores how society, religion, and men project their desires onto a young woman's body and identity. Similarly, Fiona in Haunting Ground is hunted and objectified, transforming her survival journey into a fight to reclaim her body and space. Both characters ultimately regain ownership of their bodies and identities, highlighting themes of autonomy and resistance.
Even in monstrous tales within each horror video game, characters like Jill Valentine in the Resident Evil franchise demonstrate resilience and resolve. Jill confronts her traumas, the apocalyptic world, and the fight for her own life and the lives of others thrown at her. She is a character given resolve and agency in this zombie- and monster-infested world. Yes, she is thrown around like a rag-doll, but she faces super mutants, showcasing her strength and resilience. This resilience helps her fight Umbrella Corporation’s institutional betrayal of her and her world.
Horror, and specifically horror video games, gives us narratives and a vessel to explore traumas and themes of autonomy. It makes us explore: what really is monstrous? The inherent lack of self-autonomy, or the monsters that we battle within each game? Considering how these portrayals influence societal perceptions of women can provoke reflection on broader societal issues and gender norms.
