Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Ghastly Multiplication: Fatal Frame II and the Videogame Uncanny

This paper offers a close-play and close-reading analysis of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, a 2003 PlayStation 2 survival horror game developed by Tecmo, to argue that the videogame uncanny is produced not merely by borrowing literary or filmic techniques but through the interplay of operational demands and affective…

• The videogame uncanny, per this paper, arises not just from borrowed literary or filmic techniques but from the interplay of operational demands (controls, camera, mechanics) and affective experience, producing a distinctly ludic form of the familiar made unfamiliar.
• Using Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (Tecmo, 2003, PlayStation 2) as its case study, the authors show how camera-based combat, shifts between third- and first-person perspectives, and restricted movement during camera mode generate uncanny effects.
• The twin avatars Mio and Mayu and the Crimson Sacrifice ritual, in which one twin kills the other, are read as doubles that mirror the player's own uncertain identification with the avatar.