Expansion, Excess and the Uncanny: Deadly Premonition and Twin Peaks

Julian Novitz

doi:10.3390/arts7030049

Abstract

The influence of the cult television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991) can be detected in a wide range of videogames, from adventure, to roleplaying to survival horror titles. While many games variously draw upon the narrative, setting and imagery of the series for inspiration, certain elements of the distinctive uncanniness of Twin Peaks are difficult to translate into gameplay, particularly its ability consistently disrupt the expectations and emotional responses of its audience. This paper examines the ways in which the 2010 survival horror title Deadly Premonition replicates the uncanniness of Twin Peaks in both its narrative and gameplay, noting how it expands upon conceptualizations of the gamerly uncanny. It contends that Deadly Premonition’s awkward recombination of seemingly inconsistent and excessive gameplay features mirrors the ways in which David Lynch and Mark Frost draw upon and subvert audience expectations for police procedurals and soap operas in the original Twin Peaks in order to generate an uncanny effect. Furthermore, Deadly Premonition uses the theme of possession—a central element of the television series—to offer a diegetic exploration of the uncanny relationship between the player and their onscreen avatar. In these regards, Deadly Premonition provides a rare example of how the subversive uncanniness of Twin Peaks can be addressed through gameplay, rather than solely through the game’s narrative or representational elements.

Highlights

The Uncanny in Survival Horror Video GamesThe contemporary idea of the uncanny first emerges in a 1906 essay by Ernst Jentsch, in which he characterizes as the psychological state that results from unsettling experiences of uncertainty, in relation to the status of inanimate objects (Jentsch 1995)
The expansive and consistently subversive nature of the uncanny aesthetic of Twin Peaks has been difficult to replicate in gameplay, and cannot be accommodated by the type of “gamerly uncanny” identified by Huber and Hoeger, which develops out of the strict minimalism of survival horror titles
Frost and Lynch (1990–1991)’s cult television series Twin Peaks is considered a distinctively and unusually uncanny television series (Weinstock 2016), which likely contributes to its continuing influence on a wide variety of media, including videogames, and in particular, survival horror titles

Summary

Introduction

The contemporary idea of the uncanny first emerges in a 1906 essay by Ernst Jentsch, in which he characterizes as the psychological state that results from unsettling experiences of uncertainty, in relation to the status of inanimate objects (Jentsch 1995). In the Powers of Horror Kristeva (1982) locates the abject within the realm of the uncanny, suggesting that it is represented by border figures that are not quite right and must be cast out in order to survive Both horror literature and cinema frequently evoke a sense of the uncanny through the use of both literal doppelgangers and doubling effects in their narrative structures and imagery (Schneider 2004). Conventional video game design would usually attempt to avoid distancing or detaching the player from their onscreen avatar, but survival horror games can evoke tension, dread and anxiety through an avatar that appears incomplete and not wholly human (Tinwell and Grimshaw 2009), or by using narrative and visual strategies that disrupt the player’s identification with the onscreen character (Perron 2012) This common feature of survival horror titles creates a tension between the player’s tendency to identify with their avatar and the limitations that survival horror games place on their perception, agency and control. The expansive and consistently subversive nature of the uncanny aesthetic of Twin Peaks has been difficult to replicate in gameplay (if not in narrative and representational content), and cannot be accommodated by the type of “gamerly uncanny” identified by Huber and Hoeger, which develops out of the strict minimalism of survival horror titles

Twin Peaks and Video Games

Expansion and Excess

Possession in Twin Peaks and Deadly Premonition

Conclusions