It's been nearly 20 years since Clock Tower debuted on the SNES. Though it's been years since we've had another game about the villain wielding gigantic scissors, it remains a cult hit.
Clock Tower probably isn't coming back anytime soon. The last major sequel was Clock Tower 3 in 2002, after developer Human Entertainment imploded. Capcom developed the last game, but the series has been quiet ever since, and there's no way to play the series without paying large sums of money to collectors.
Series creator Hifumi Kono split from Human to found Nude Maker, a studio that's since collaborated with Capcom on Steel Battalion and Platinum Games on Infinite Space.
Now, Kono has plans to return this roots with Project Scissors, a point-and-click adventure game that just-so-happens to include a person wielding a giant pair of scissors.
Komo's collaborating with Ju-on: The Grudge filmmaker Takashi Shimizu for Project Scissors, and I recently had a chance to send off a bunch of questions to both of them. Their answers are below, but they wanted to share some exciting news, too. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots composer Nobuko Toda has joined the project, and will be composing the soundtrack for Project Scissors.
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GIant Bomb: When you describe this project as "indie," what exactly does that mean? What kind of scope are we talking about?
Hifumi Kono: I consider “indie” to mean creating and releasing something that you are truly passionate about, as opposed to being tied down to a publisher by a contract in exchange for development funding.
Takashi Shimizu: I was, of course, the director of a V-cinema (film shot with video camera) that would be the original installment for the movie Ju-on: The Grudge, which was a low-budget independent short film. I think it is that kind of hungry, self-starter kind of motivation that makes this project "indie."
The production for Ju-on had a kind of “anything goes, as long as it’s scary” mentality, and as long as the content fell within the boundaries of the film’s theme, we were allowed to create pretty much anything we wanted. That made the project very fulfilling to work on, and I think that helped make the film really resonate with the audience, as well. The fact that we had to rely on our own sense of direction, combined with the “anything goes” mentality, is what led to the great success and future prospects for the franchise.
I know this is only natural from a business perspective, but as funding and headcounts increase, the more “certain individuals” tend to want to thoughtlessly cater to popular tastes in order to mitigate risk. They begin to focus on what’ll sell or what’ll become “the next big thing” instead. We can avoid working with and having our creative wills being collectively crushed by “certain individuals” by going it alone, who would otherwise blame us for any failures but take all the credit for any success. This might be largely inevitable as a matter of business, but it’s something that’s the same in both Japan and abroad.
GB: Why do you think the scissorman has survived for so long? What makes him so terrifying
Kono: I think there are three main reasons for this. First is the fact that the kind of pain he can inflict is easy to imagine. It’s not hard to imagine what it would actually be like to be snapped between a pair of giant scissors.
The second is that the murders are indiscriminate. This is an important horror element that I insist on, as I think that players can feel a deeper sense of fear if they don’t understand why they’re being chased down. In the movie Poltergeist, for instance, if the cause of the paranormal activity was the fact that the house was built on top of a cemetery, I would think, “then why not just move?”
The last is the he has a cute side. He plays the piano with his feet, he goes through the trouble of hiding in an aquarium and patiently waits for the player, etc. I think the juxtaposition of silly little acts like that against his true nature as a blood-thirsty murderer comes off as both amusing, as well as terrifying.
Shimizu: I think Mr. Kono’s comment about “a deeper sense of fear” is accurate. Scissors are instruments that everyone has experience with since childhood, meaning regardless of where you’re from, you can imagine the kind of pain it would inflict. When I create horror films, I also try to avoid unrealistic worlds. Instead I try to create settings that seem like an extension of the real world which viewers can relate to and, thus, feel like it could happen to them, making the experience much more frightening. Of course, you also need to consider differences in things like culture, religion, or the environment in which you grew up, but I think scissors transcend such aspects. I think there’s significance to that.
GB: Can you explain your obsession with scissors? Did you cut yourself a bunch of times when you were younger?
Kono: I never cut myself with scissors as a child, but I remember being really frightened by a poster for the movie The Burning. The backlit silhouette of a maniac wielding a giant pair of scissors left a traumatic impression on me. Another source of inspiration was the episode Rusted Scissors in the manga Left Hand of God, Right Hand of the Devil by Kazuo Umezu. There’s a scene where a pair of scissors are shoved in the victim’s mouth and are snapped open to cut their cheeks apart which really left an impression on me.
The great thing about scissors is that unlike weapons like axes, which would instantly incapacitate and kill a victim, a pair of scissors will pinch together your flesh, inflicting a dull pain, and then snip, snip, snip… Causing further pain as your flesh is cut open...The pain isn’t momentary, making it all the more horrifying.
Shimizu: Heavier instruments like axes or chainsaws can easily cut through objects that humans couldn’t normally cut with just their own strength, but that’s not the case with scissors. With a pair of scissors, when you cut through something like a piece of paper, the sensation can be felt directly by your hand. This makes it easy for anyone to imagine and empathize with the pain being inflicted.
"The murders are indiscriminate. Players can feel a deeper sense of fear if they don’t understand why they’re being chased down."
GB: You've been working on this idea for five years or so. How come you've been so obsessed with seeing this project happen?
Kono: I’m most obsessed with protecting my vision of a unique game that isn’t developed around marketing research. A game where you can only run or hide would definitely be shot down by a company driven by market research, but if instead you look at it as an elemental expression of fear in the horror genre, then I think the concept becomes very interesting. The same goes with the point-and-click interface. Of course, this input method isn’t as optimal in terms of its synchronicity with button inputs, but it better simulates the lack of control you have over your body when under intense fear (many people have probably experienced this in a nightmare), as well as in its dramatic effect. Preserving these abstractions is really what I’m obsessing over, which is why the game had to be developed independently, as, unfortunately, there really aren’t any publishers who would be willing to fund a point-and-click adventure game in this era.
GB: Clock Tower didn't focus on combat, an idea that's become much more popular recently. How come Clock Tower didn't feature any combat?
Kono: From the perspective of game design, fighting and defeating enemies has been the most basic design concept since the inception of video games, and this continues to be the case. The biggest reason why I wanted to pursue this different concept was to provide an antithesis to the sort of game design that simplistically conforms to this format without question. Because my perspective on horror draws from Lovecraftian works, I’m especially drawn to the notion of a horror humanity cannot hope to defy lurking somewhere in this world. In this way, humanity is humbled, just as the existence of God does. This is best represented by game mechanics in which combat is not a component.
GB: This project is supposed to be infused with J-horror. What makes J-horror different from other types of horror?
Shimizu: Personally I find the use of the term “J-horror” a bit embarrassing at this point... But in any case, typical horror emphasizes direct or physical depictions, whereas J-horror incorporates more internalized depictions. That is, indirect fear or basically attempting to invoke fear by trying to depict intangible things like deep-seated grudges as terrifyingly as possible, which may not just be a trait of J-horror alone but perhaps an Eastern sense of fear in general. Religious viewpoints are going to vary and the kind of fears we’re confronted with on a day to day basis are also going to influence us, so of course these things are going be different depending on one’s country or environment. To simplify, Hollywood-style horror like the hockey mask wearing Jason invokes a direct and violent terror by physically attacking victims, whereas in J-horror, intangible emotions/feelings come back as vengeful spirits, invoking an indirect or psychological fear as the spirit acts as a “weapon,” working as a major horror element.
Kono: So you could say that typical horror is characterized by the fear of physical pain while J-horror is about the fear of psychological pain.
Shimizu: You could also characterize it as masculine fear and feminine fear In North America especially. Fears, such as your neighbor attacking you with physical strength (masculine), might be an example of a strong fear. In Japan and Asia, from a psychological perspective, such physical strength is not as great a source of fear, but the true spirit hidden beneath the surface of an individual’s physical being is considered scary. Personifications of such fears are easier to represent as women rather than men, and thus female ghosts are more prevalent in J-horror.
GB: What drew you to horror in the first place? Did you watch horror movies while you were growing up?
Kono: I did watch a lot of horror shows and TV shows about paranormal activity growing up. Some of the movies I watched were Phenomena, Suspiria, The Omen, and The Exorcist, to name a few… I grew up during the golden age of occult horror and loved to ponder about the strange phenomena that could occur as I watched those movies as a child. My main sources of inspiration to this day are those films.
GB: Why do you think people like to be scared? What's the appeal?
Shimizu: I think people want to explore their animalistic and instinctive drives from a setting they perceive as being completely safe. In this day and age, pretty much everyone considers themselves to be “safe,” and a lot of people are willing to pay good money to visit haunted houses at amusement parks or ride roller coasters to intentionally feel scared. I think they’re simply seeking a thrill in an environment they consider to be “safe.”
GB: Have you ever had a supernatural experience?
Shimizu: Many times while on set during film shootings. We’d count the extras wearing special effects make-up after the filming and find there was actually one more cast member that appeared than we actually used, or when we filmed a portrait of an actual deceased person we later found that all the portions that included the portrait contained static that we couldn’t get rid of. Lots of stuff like that.
I don’t think this is because we were filming for a horror movie though. This kind of thing can occur whether it’s a yakuza movie or a romantic film. Things like equipment breaking down, or an actress mentioning she saw something… Movie sets and film studios are focal points of peoples’ energy and thoughts and are generally very tense environments.
I’ve mostly worked on horror myself, and I always get asked that after I finish work on a film, so I always make sure not to forget any such incidents because questions like that are always included in interviews for marketing purposes as well. [laughs] It might have marketing value if we’re talking about a horror film, sure, but paranormal incidents or accidents occurring on the set of a comedy, romance, or family oriented movie could seriously hurt the movie’s image, not that anyone would bother asking in an interview though (laughs). None of the reporters asked me if there were any frightening incidents after the release of Kiki’s Delivery Service this year, despite the fact that I’m asked that 100% of the time during interviews for horror movies. The impression you set out for a film’s setting can have a huge effect on the audience I suppose. The reality though is that you actually need to be careful about set locations and interpersonal relationships especially with horror films. [laughs]
Kono: One late night, as I was working at the office, I heard the sound of intermittent keyboard tapping from a desk across the room. The desk being behind a partition, I said “I thought everyone had already gone home but I guess I was wrong.” When I headed over though, in fact no one was there. I have to admit that sent a chill down my spine.
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