Högskolan i Skövde

This thesis examines why female figures are frequently depicted as terrifying in horror games and how this effect is achieved through the use of symbolism, narrative, and mechanics. Drawing on Jung/Neumann, Kristeva, Butler, Eisler and Foucault, it develops a five-dimensional framework: Character Framing, Visual Representation, Socio-Cultural Resonance, Ritualized Violence and Player Interaction Mechanics, and applies it to Silent Hill 2 Remake (2024), Resident Evil Village (2021), The Evil Within(2014), Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003), and Paper Dolls (2019-2020). Analyses show that female monstrosity condenses anxieties about maternal omnipotence, bodily permeability, and gender intelligibility, and that games proceduralize these anxieties by foreclosing dialogue and scripting expulsion. The framework spans cultural contexts and is refined by distinguishing between symbolic ritual (what worlds stage and justify) and procedural complicity (how players are compelled to enact it). The study clarifies how contemporary horror games re-stage patriarchal mechanisms of exclusion while making players perform them.