The use of mannequins would have made for a fascinating motif, perhaps with the actor recognising the connection between artist and mannequin to address his inner turmoil. They bury their heads in their hands in distress, lay crumpled in a corner as if having been bludgeoned with a heavy object, or curl up in the fetal position, gripped by some undisclosed fear. Within the actor’s troubled psyche these mannequins-as-family, or mannequins-as-friends, are mostly inanimate and expressionless, but somehow eerily impassioned in their postures. At times, they are muses for fashion designers or photographers. They have been used by artists to study the human form and anatomy since the days of the Renaissance, and still serve as substitutes for models and actors today. After all, mannequins do serve a functional purpose in real life. It tries to put together a nuanced take on this horror trope, often by referencing them as stand-ins for people in the actor’s life, rather than representing abstract fears. To its credit, Layers of Fear 2 seems to understand horror’s over-reliance on mannequins for cheap scares. And under the looming voice of the eccentric and dictatorial director, the entire affair eventually descends into a downward spiral of despair. He soon crumbles beneath the stresses of filming on a ship, a place he definitely has some uncomfortable history with.
And from the clues and paraphernalia strewn across the ship, you get the feeling that the actor isn’t particularly keen about being here. Then a menacing voice reverberates through the room, demanding his subservience. Before you start navigating the ship, every act begins with the actor waking up from his bed in his cabin, which is immaculately decorated with tasteful ornaments. This ship serves as a setting for the darkest recesses of the actor’s mind, while the labyrinthine hallways twist and mutate into disquieting, macabre scenes, blurring the lines between fevered dreams, performance and reality.
Like the similarly tormented painter from the original Layers Of Fear, you'll be wandering through a grand but unsettling place, this time a lavish cruise ship. These bizarre figures seemingly trail the main character wherever he goes, a tortured actor seeking inspiration for a prestigious role in his latest film. In the same vein, Layers Of Fear 2 uses such jump-scares abundantly, propping mannequins up in cordoned-off rooms and against dusty furniture. Like many horror staples, these are strategically placed to unnerve players and elicit a quick scare, with a plethora of games placing them in almost predictable locations: at the end of a corridor, in a dimly lit corner, even right behind the player. The dead-eyed stare sans pupils, the unnaturally rigid poses and angular elbows, and the perverse mimicry of human behaviour hurls them right into the trough of the uncanny valley. There’s something about mannequins that makes them such prime fodder for horror games.
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