Anatomy is a game that made me very glad I live in a small one-bedroom flat because when I finished playing it wouldn’t take too long to check all the rooms.
Even then, peering into the kitchen and switching the light on, opening the fridge, checking the bathroom, and then further down the hallway finally peering into the living room was an anxious experience.
Anatomy is the terror you felt as a child when you had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and that short distance between your bedroom and the bathroom seemed to stretch on forever. Even worse is if this happened in a home you were staying in on holiday and for some reason you had to go all the way downstairs to use the toilet, and it was the most terrifying thing in the world. Keeping you back to the wall as you navigate this unknown space so nothing can grab you from behind.
I’m not even sure that actually happened to me and yet it feels like an almost universal memory. There are various memories I have of holidays as a child staying in unfamiliar homes. These memories are too faded now that I probably couldn’t even place enough details to ask my parents or siblings “what was up with that place, when did we go there, why?” But they linger sometimes, vague memories of unfamiliar liminal spaces that create a sense of unease. Houses where you were too young to really understand the dimensions of the physical space so it feels like any room could lead to anything else.
Anatomy isn’t actually about any of these things by the way, but it triggered these memories in me. It’s more particularly about the house itself that seems to be malevolent, and I think that’s a fascinating facet to the fear I’m thinking of. that a physical space itself can have it out for you. Something that has motives beyond human understanding, and yet it’s supposed to be a familiar, mundane and comforting space.
Obviously, Anatomy is a game that you’re best off going in knowing as little as possible, it’s well worth checking out, Kitty Horroshow also has other free games her available from her site.
Even then, peering into the kitchen and switching the light on, opening the fridge, checking the bathroom, and then further down the hallway finally peering into the living room was an anxious experience.
Anatomy is the terror you felt as a child when you had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and that short distance between your bedroom and the bathroom seemed to stretch on forever. Even worse is if this happened in a home you were staying in on holiday and for some reason you had to go all the way downstairs to use the toilet, and it was the most terrifying thing in the world. Keeping you back to the wall as you navigate this unknown space so nothing can grab you from behind.
I’m not even sure that actually happened to me and yet it feels like an almost universal memory. There are various memories I have of holidays as a child staying in unfamiliar homes. These memories are too faded now that I probably couldn’t even place enough details to ask my parents or siblings “what was up with that place, when did we go there, why?” But they linger sometimes, vague memories of unfamiliar liminal spaces that create a sense of unease. Houses where you were too young to really understand the dimensions of the physical space so it feels like any room could lead to anything else.
Anatomy isn’t actually about any of these things by the way, but it triggered these memories in me. It’s more particularly about the house itself that seems to be malevolent, and I think that’s a fascinating facet to the fear I’m thinking of. that a physical space itself can have it out for you. Something that has motives beyond human understanding, and yet it’s supposed to be a familiar, mundane and comforting space.
Obviously, Anatomy is a game that you’re best off going in knowing as little as possible, it’s well worth checking out, Kitty Horroshow also has other free games her available from her site.