For nearly my entire life, I’ve found myself drawn towards media with a darker tone, though “dark” is an inadequate term for describing all of the varieties and technicalities of what I’m talking about. “Dark” can be the story of Coraline, where an unhappy young girl escapes into a world dominated by deception and a horrific creature donning the name “The Other Mother.” It may also be used to describe The Hunger Games, in which the will of a corrupt government is superimposed on the country, arbitrarily selecting youth to butcher each other in the name of their respective homelands. “Dark” is also The Last of Us, where a jaded father must resurrect his protective instincts in order to guide a girl with the infected cure through desolation and adversity as they travel cross-country. “Dark” is The Binding of Isaac where a religiously fanatic mother is directed by God to murder her son, forcing him to retreat to their hell-inspired basement. Let’s not forget all of the darkness in our own history and how that can be portrayed in media, such as in the movie Schindler’s List, where we see the systematic annihilation of Jews during the Holocaust.
I like dark media; I like media with a bleak (though, not hopeless) approach in narrative and artistic direction. My interest in such media can be reverse-engineered into a number of different appeals in which the subject matter provides. For starters, there’s a wealth of variety, as seen above. None of what I named are similar in their tones, themes, or execution. Each of them illustrate a different take on “dark,” yet few people would deny that word signifies them. You certainly would never mistake Resident Evil as a “joyful” video game, or Attack on Titan for being an anime that promotes smiles and laughter. Yet, in spite of this, they are both incredibly popular franchises. Why?
- For the record, don’t just Google “Creepy Pictures.” This was easily the most tame thing that popped up.