Until Dawn EP5: Corndogs?

By Shamus Posted Thursday Nov 17, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 50 comments


Link (YouTube)

There’s a jumpscare right around the 14:30 mark here, and it doesn’t make any sense. It’s a jumpscare for the audience and not the characters, which is a problem I’d just been complaining about a few seconds earlier. Mike is looking through the binoculars and a face appears. For one thing, the face is very close. Since the characters are standing on top of a steep slope / small cliff, I have no idea how anyone could stand that particular distance in front of the binoculars without hovering above the ground. More importantly, Mike gives no reaction whatsoever. Either Mike is in on this murder (in the style of Scream) or the storyteller is engaging in flagrant shenanigans.

Josh suggested that maybe it was Jessica jumping in front of the binoculars for a second, but if you freeze the frame you get:


ORCHESTRAL STING!
ORCHESTRAL STING!

I don’t… I don’t think that’s a teenage girl.

 


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50 thoughts on “Until Dawn EP5: Corndogs?

  1. Leocruta says:

    I have studied the image extensively, and after much deliberation, I must agree with you.
    Obviously, it’s a teenage boy.

    1. Ninety-Three says:

      British, by the looks of him.

      1. MrGuy says:

        Pfft. It’s clearly the wolverine.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Nah,he is almost fifty now.Also,australian.

  2. Chris says:

    I see way too much of my own clumsy relations in these characters to feel entirely comfortable with how much you all laugh at them for being immature. :(

    1. Gruhunchously says:

      Lose the faux hawk and then we’ll talk, Chris. You nerd.

    2. Jokerman says:

      Ashley will never love you.

    3. Tever says:

      Adolescence is about learning how to adult life. And like learning anything, you can do some stupid shit while trying to figure out how to do it right. And also like learning anything, other people are going to find your mistakes funny. Ideally, you will, too, one day. The important thing is don’t take it personally, and don’t be too hard on yourself.

      1. Chris says:

        OH GOD. YOU THINK I’M AN ADOLESCENT. THIS KEEPS GETTING WORSE.

        By the standards of most british people im supposed to be an adult…

        1. Tever says:

          Dude, I’m 34, and I’m still trying to navigate adolescence.

  3. MichaelGC says:

    It really is amazing animation when Josh (our Josh. Real Josh) can do that freakout thing with their eyes during a decision, and it still looks, ehhh, well, let’s say fairly close to human. You’d perhaps not expect to see that in real life – maybe in a film? – but it’s not nearly as uncanny here as it has every right to be.

    Don’t get me wrong: it’s still pretty freaky! But it looks … plausible, and when Josh applies stress to a game and the results are nevertheless plausible that’s perhaps worthy of note.

    1. Benjamin Hilton says:

      Yeah, it’s freaky because seeing a person whip their eyes like that would be off putting, not because of uncanny valley reasons.

  4. Benjamin Hilton says:

    I also loved the selfie moment in terms of tension. It’s a scenario where you can see things that the characters may not be able too. So you end up frantically scanning the background afraid of seeing something that isn’t even there.

  5. Xeorm says:

    It doesn’t look like a teenage girl to me, but I bet if you asked many of them that’s what they’d say that they look like when they don’t have their makeup on.

  6. Syal says:

    That orchestral sting is actually in the world, it’s the sound of the character’s nerves snapping. It only sounds like a stringed instrument because they’re wound up so tight.

    The talk of failing mundane tasks made me think of Heavy Tie.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-rLtL7mytQ

    1. Wray92 says:

      I was hoping Good Robot would somehow get Slowbeef and Shamus in a video together, which would be like my version of an all-star game. Slowbeef sometimes does those streams bringing the developers on. Maybe someday….

      1. UnwiseTrout says:

        I was hoping for this too, maybe it’ll still happen!

    2. IFS says:

      For me it brought to mind Heavy Juice:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9bFb3kpKeM

  7. Christopher says:

    Rutskarn went 8 inches too far in this episode.

  8. Henson says:

    Okay, why the hell is there an outdoor gate with an electric lock out in this super-remote mountain retreat? Did the builders think that an electric lock would prevent people from jumping that really short wall, assuming there are going to be any people here to begin with?

    1. MrGuy says:

      Also, does the generator power anything other than the electric lock and the floodlight that illuminates the electric lock?

      Kinda makes you wonder which came first – the generator or the lock?

      1. BigTiki says:

        And the ‘guest cabin” is so far from the generator shed that all the guests do is walk back and forth with fuel before the thing runs dry powering that oh-so-demanding lock mechanism.

        “Ah, it’s good to take my boots off and relax.”
        *beep beep beep*
        “Well, that’s the generator alarm, have to go down and refill it. See you soon, honey!”

    2. Andy_Panthro says:

      It wasn’t even a lock, once there was power he just pushed a button to unlock it. May as well have had a simple latch.

  9. MrGuy says:

    Woah woah woah woah
    Woah

    It’s actually possible in this game to climb up and lift yourself over a low wall? It’s not some kind of insurmountable barrier? That’s some groundbreaking stuff.

    Game of the Year.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      So far,only the npc did it,so we are yet to see if you can actually do it,or if youll have to walk 20 miles around it.

      1. MrGuy says:

        You will not destroy my dreams!!!

  10. Duoae says:

    You don’t think that’s a teenage girl?

    Hmmm. Interesting…

  11. Daemian Lucifer says:

    So the wooden door was frozen shut,and you had a problem opening it,but the metal gate was working perfectly?

  12. Daemian Lucifer says:

    You say that there are some good jump scares in this game,and I disagree.Whenever there is a loud orchestral sound that follows something sudden and unexpected,its a shitty jump scare.That scene with the guy standing behind you,in a good horror,thered be no musical sting,and youd be actually unnerved by that.Nothing would call your attention to it,other than your eyes seeing something weird.With a sound,the scene just tries to startle you,and being startled ruins the mood of horror.You need to be made uneasy by the scene,constantly guessing if therell be a follow up and when.But with a sound,you know that its over,that that brief scene is all there is.

    Alas,I dont think such a thing is even possible in modern “horror”.

    1. Shamus says:

      Yeah. When we recorded the episode I had my volume way down so sound doesn’t leak into my microphone. Which means I really wasn’t hearing these stings. You’ll notice in the episode I talk about the game as if it didn’t do this.

      But now that I’m watching this with the sound, I see they are just using the bullshit LOUD SOUND school of jump scares.

      The scene with the guy behind Mike was SO much better without the sting sound. Silent, it’s subtle and unnerving. With the sound, it’s clumsy and obvious.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Having three other people talking over a game improved the horror of it?Well,thats the first time such a thing ever happened.

        1. MrGuy says:

          I dunno. I’m kinda scared of Fallout 4 now…

  13. Deadpool says:

    I think I like the jump scares in this game because it’s kinda spoofing shitty horror movies… It’s kind of par for the course.

    1. Henson says:

      I dunno, I’m not seeing much spoof here. Seems to me the game is following the tropes pretty faithfully, without any self-aware humour. The only wild card so far is Doctor Stormare.

  14. Pyrrhic Gades says:

    I really didn’t like that last jump scare. You just knew that snowball was coming, and there was no way to avoid it. I swear that last snowball fight was rigged.

  15. 4th Dimension says:

    Maybe she was going through her bi*** phase?

    * I wonder if I went too far *

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Her bicep phase?I cant really tell,they all have too much clothes on.We shall see when they all undress.

      1. 4th Dimension says:

        I was refering to maybe female in the picture above.

        1. MichaelGC says:

          Going through her bilbo phase. Really big hairy feet. Er, temporarily.

          1. pdk1359 says:

            she’s allergic to rogane and got some on her feet?

  16. Nick-B says:

    Hmm, a jump scare around the 18 minute mark eh?
    *Looks at 17:58 runtime of video*
    Uhhh…..

    Edit: Ah, looks like it’s at the 14:30 mark.

  17. Christopher says:

    This has always bothered me as well and the only thing I can think is that it’s blatantly an audience not character jumpscare, in the same vein as you might have an a horror movie where the characters close the door to the room and the audience sees something inside that they characters can’t.

    I think it’s supposed to be that the thing jumps up just as mike is looking away, so he misses it.

    1. Jokerman says:

      Why wouldn’t Jessica see it though?

      1. MichaelGC says:

        Mayhap the wee sprite’s corporeal manifestation is invisibly tenuous absent sufficient psychic sensitivity to snatch a flimsy fleeting glimmerglimpse?

        Either that, or those are magic binos.

        1. Christopher says:

          Those are close but not that close. IF the thing was right up against the binocular you wouldn’t even be able to make up those details you do see, it’d just be an indistinct smudge.

  18. stratigo says:

    “I don’t think that’s a teenage girl”

    Bahahahahahaha.

    Oh that twist.

  19. guy says:

    Yes, clearly when someone almost gets injured falling off something but is not in any immediate danger, the wisest way to come to their aid is jumping and not finding a way to climb down.

    Also, “I’m not going to spoil anything” is the new “I’m not your monkey!”

  20. Andy_Panthro says:

    Kinda glad I didn’t buy this game now, only because those little quick-time events and similar really annoy me. When it’s for a simple action especially, like opening the gate.

  21. @ Shamus
    “There's a jumpscare right around the 14:30 mark here, and it doesn't make any sense. It's a jumpscare for the audience and not the characters”

    Actually, Jessica saw it “Jessica: Woah, I just saw someone at the cabin.”

    Then Mike looks ses nothing, turn away to look at Jessica (but the viewer sees something), if Mike had looked 1 second longer he would have seen it too, but obviously didn’t as that would be too soon (for a horror movie).

  22. natureguy85 says:

    I like the jumpscares with the guy in the window and behind Mike when he jumps down. I really like the beam falling since that makes sense in the setting of the abandoned mine. I can do without the pigeon.

    I don’t mind the characters flirting or alluding to sex, but it’s over the top. I think it would get annoying even if I was Mike. The invitation made it sound like a big group hang out and party, but now it seems like 4 couples splitting up to have sex in the same area. I really hope the characters get a little more to them or some other relationships between them.

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