Everybody knows that excessive gore is fun, especially Epic Games, who brought the chainsaw murder back into popular culture with Gears of War. Discussing where he got the inspiration for the amount of “fun” gore in GoW2, artist Peter Hayes explains that 80’s horror films played a big part.
“That’s kind of the tone that I drew inspiration from and that’s kind of the tone that I wanted it to be in the game,” explained Hayes. “Other games that are more slow and methodical and creepy and scary, I still enjoy playing them, but I really like the way that it is in Gears and that it’s not serious. It’s more fun.”
Hayes shared his favorite horror films, which include the early Peter Jackson splatter comedies, proving he has excellent taste: “All of the original kind of Day of the Dead zombie movies. Obviously, Evil Dead. Huge fan. Dead Alive was kind of comedy gore. The early Peter Jackson stuff like Bad Taste and things along those lines. For me, my stuff is very old school and it’s when gore was fun and gore was just that kind of surprise effect.”
Hayes admitted that recent horror movies that try and shock with realistic violence (such as Hostel) don’t appeal to him, and Gears of War tries to go for the more OTT and unrealistic violence that looks cool, but isn’t just there to be shocking. Sounds good to me. Unfathomable jets of blood and exploding limbs win my heart every time.
