Combine one part slasher-flick-style plot and suspense, another part probing meta commentary on violence in modern society, add some nonsensical humor and a dash of nudity, and voilà, “The Scare Game” is served.
“The Scare Game,” written and directed by Phillip Hughes, is a new Web series in the same vein as popular series like “The Guild” and “The Legend of Neil.” Each episode of “The Scare Game” runs about eight minutes.
Hughes said he was inspired to begin the series by an image that haunted him.
“I had this vision of this masked killer, hiding underneath a bed, being stalked by this cute, young girl,” said Hughes. “I really like horror, and I like the slasher genre, but I think it gets tedious at times. It evolved from there.”
Brian Wenrich, a producer for “The Scare Game,” said producing a Web series is the best way to reach a wide audience when resources are scarce.
“The nice thing about the Internet is you have a distribution medium,” he said. “For the little guy out there trying to get out your work, it was really difficult. Now we have the Internet. You can send out your work to the audience. Then you have to try to figure out who is going to care and who is going to watch it.”
Hughes said the Web series makes it easier to change perspectives at the beginning of each episode, so that the audience gets a better sense of the story.
“It was originally a feature-length screenplay,” Hughes said. “The subject matter was a lot darker, but it was a lot more absurd as well. It finally got to this point with the venue of doing a Web series.… It worked out where we could do more with the characters and make them fun and interesting but also keep them grounded.”
In addition to local production in Albuquerque, the series also boasts high-quality cinematic effects, such as crisp graphics, smooth editing cuts and believable acting, not usually found in a Web series, Hughes said.
“If we were going to do this, we were going to make it look sharp,” he said. “It won’t be film, but we’ll still have a sharp image, we’ll still make it look good and cinematic. I’d rather take more time and have a longer release schedule to make something look good.”
“The Scare Game” focuses on a group of horror enthusiasts who play out scenarios from horror films. For example, in the first episode, a group reenacts the clichéd horror idea of a killer hiding somewhere in the house. Hughes said the goal was to critique violence in modern culture.
“There’s something really visceral about the slasher genre,” Hughes said. “We like it and laugh, because it’s over the top, but we live in a day and age where people flip out and kill a lot of folks all the time. It really does happen. That’s something real and scary about human nature.”
The first of 13 scheduled episodes was released Oct. 15. Viewers can watch edited versions of the videos on YouTube.com, or they can watch unedited versions on the group’s Web site, TheScareGame.com.
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As of Monday afternoon, the video had more than 670 views on YouTube, and likely has more hits on the game’s Web site, Wenrich said. The first episode also received favorable reviews from horror-fan Web sites, such as Hellnotes and Horror Crypt. Wenrich said it’s a thrill to see the video garner support so early, but the real thrill comes from filming locally.
“We did it together, as friends,” Wenrich said. “We didn’t need to go to some people outside. We were able to do everything just us, just friends, just New Mexicans. That’s really where the excitement comes from now.”
*“The Scare Game”
Web series
TheScareGame.com *
