A Review of Phasmophobia
The team watching ghost orbs on the monitor. Screenshot courtesy of the author
By Ed Blair
There’s a certain chaotic joy in the early episodes of the television show Ghost Adventures. It’s less a scientific exploration of the possibilities of the afterlife, and more of a gleefully nonsensical horror movie, the fun coming from watching the bro-y protagonists ignore common sense to breathe asbestos and get scared by the creak of a floorboard. Zac Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin dare each other to go in haunted basements, or abandoned jail cells, and shriek into walkie-talkies and handheld camcorders. They collect dubious evidence, and present it all in a hilariously lurid fashion, leaning heavily on historical reportage that makes your local ghost tour seem reputable. If the history is shaky, the metaphysical aspect is flimsier, a vaguely new age hodge-podge of various Christian traditions.
Modern ghost-hunting, as represented by shows like Ghost Adventures, can be traced back to England in the 1600’s, with stops in the Spiritualism movement and post-war Britain along the way, but the real immediate antecedents of Bagans and crew are the folks involved in the Amityville Horror incident, especially Ed and Lorraine Warren (Bagans even has a museum of cursed objects of his own now). A demonic haunting legitimized by relatively horrific tragedy, complete with apocryphal rumors of Native American burial grounds, and priests driven from the home, paved the way for the pulpy pleasures of the modern ghost hunting show. The visceral nature of the story is perfect for television. Shows like Ghost Hunters (one of the original ghost shows in the States) and Ghost Adventures started capitalizing on the format in the 2000s, and haven’t looked back.
Screenshot courtesy of the author.
It’s this experience that Phasmophobia excels at recreating. One of the surprising hits of 2020, the game focuses on recreating the television-friendly pseudo-scientific explorations of creepy-as-heck places, ranging from banal suburban two-stories, to abandoned asylums and jails. You and up to three friends get all the gadgets, the EMF detector, a fancy digital thermometer, a “spirit box” (a device that rapidly cycles through radio frequencies, ostensibly to give ghosts a sonic palette to manipulate) that responds to questions spoken into your computer’s microphone, video cameras (to detect spirit orbs), and more. You’re also able to use more mystical methods of contacting your ghosts, like a ouija board or spirit writing. You’re supposed to collect evidence and identify the ghost before it kills you and your friends. However, the point of Ghost Adventures is not to prove ghosts are real, but to provide a vicarious thrill. Likewise, identifying ghosts is not the real point of Phasmophobia. Phasmophobia is a game about screaming into a walkie-talkie while another friend is safe in the van, watching you flail around a basement on remote video, allowing you to safely experience the ghost hunting experience without risking demonic attachment.
Spirit writing. Screenshot courtesy of the author.
It’s perhaps more interesting to note where it deviates from these shows, as the game pulls from a whole world of mystical traditions, not just flimsy Satanic Panic-style Christianity. Spiritualism is represented with the ouija board and spirit writing, while a cross will ward off demons, and salt will repel certain ghosts, both a nod to the western usage of salt as a spirit barrier, and the Shinto practice of harae. The ghosts range from the Irish banshee, the Slavic Mare, and Japanese oni. Right now, these classifications dictate the evidence they leave behind and their hunting patterns, but still, it hints towards a more comprehensive look at the phenomenon.
The last thing I saw before a ghost killed me. Screenshot courtesy of the author
These aspects of Phasmophobia bring to mind more a recent paranormal show, Hellier. The show details an expedition into reports of mysterious goblins tormenting a doctor in Kentucky, that eventually expands to include UFOs, thelemic magic, Indrid Cold, and the usage of synchronicity as a divination device. The crew on Hellier, led by Greg and Dana Newkirk, take a more holistic approach to supernatural experiences, weaving distinct strands of esoterica into a more complete whole. The Newkirks are also dedicated to research, often literally pulling books out of their expansive library to delve into a new tangent on screen, or heading to the local library to pour through maps and records while on location. Their drive for providing context for the phenomenon they research supports their inclusive approach to the occult, providing not just the thrill of a haunted house to their viewers, but a mystical paradigm to inhabit and investigate.
Right now, Phasmophobia is a truly excellent haunted house. There’s the potential for something truly special here however, if further updates expand on their vision of what hauntings can be, especially if they continue to incorporate traditions from around the world. Imagine being stalked by a red eyed woman with no back through the halls of an abandoned school, only escaping because you thought to bring along nails on your trip, or hearing the rattling chains of the barghest while dashing towards the van, knowing that to glimpse the black dog would mean death, while one of your teammates desperately hammers an iron horseshoe to the entryway. Still, it’s no small thing to have Phasmophobia’s current crop of ghosts and gadgets in your living room, and thankfully, just like Ghost Adventures, escape is always a power button away.
The afterlife w/coffee. Screenshot courtesy of the author.