Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

Who knew a camera could be so scary?

Twin waifs get terrorized by flying kimonos and rolling balls while chasing glowing butterflies in this prosaically paced shocker that goes for the brain instead of the throat with lackluster results. Part mystery, part psychological torture, Fatal Frame II embraces both the best and worst elements of the modern Japanese horror film, and its hair-raising visual creep-outs and deft handling of foreboding folklore are undermined by a steadfast reliance on survival/horror-genre trappings and boring gameplay execution.

Of Unknown Origin
Precocious teen Mio has had her share of hard knocks. As a child she nearly snuffed out her sister, Mayu, and now she?s lost in some strange town and mixed up in some bad hoodoo involving ancient sacrificial rituals and the opening of the gate to Hell. Armed with a telepathic radio and a customizable ?ber-camera that can be upgraded and outfitted with different types of psychic lenses, Mio, with gimp twin in tow, pokes around haunted houses and village shrines, collecting notebooks, diaries, newspaper clippings, and herbal medicine while exorcising ghosts by taking their photograph.

Though the game takes its chances with a snapshot-battle concept that borders on camp, it hedges its bets in other ways by making sure that every imaginable survival/horror accoutrement is present and accounted for: stylish camera angles that kill the controls; inane object arrangement and color-matching puzzles; and rampant key retrieval. Though the game does manage to toss some originality into the mix?taking the right picture when prompted can provide story clues and reveal key locations?it?s still just second-string gameplay next to Capcom and Konami?s terror titleholders. Abrupt pissed-off poltergeist attacks provide some splendid spectral scares, but such jolt-inducing moments are too few and far between amidst the endlessly mind-numbing bouts of backtracking, meandering, and room-revisiting in hopes of triggering the next cut-scene.

Brain Damage
Still, if you?re not so hung up on innovation and are just looking for a good scare, Fatal Frame II definitely earns its credentials. Splendid sound design that utilizes ambient noise and disembodied voices to increase tension rivals that of the Silent Hill games, and bone-chilling opticals are highlighted by visual hallucinations and nerve-rattling black-and-white flashbacks that play out like nightmares psychically stitched onto film. It?s the kind of game that?s meant to be played late at night with all the lights turned off; and if you?re in the right mood, its imaginative, devastatingly heart-breaking story and carefully measured scare tactics can overcome its shortcomings.

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