A new and free Animal Crossing horror movie is now available, and it is basically a full season of Netflix’s hit show, Black Mirror. Nintendo's franchise does not usually fit in with the horror theme, being a family game focused on anthropomorphic animals living peacefully on an island, all with a cute aesthetic. Nevertheless, many of the actions in the game are somewhat terrifying if carefully read into, and that is exactly how the critically acclaimed game was adapted into an uneasy and hour-long movie.
The Animal Crossing horror movie, called MASK, was created by a YouTube user known as Densle. The video, which is over an hour long and divided into multiple segments, follows the story of many different and well-known inhabitants from the series, showing how players interact with them, and a few of the digital horrors that arise from otherwise meaningless situations.
MASK, for instance, shows how a player character can barge into an NPC’s home in the middle of the night demanding a DIY Recipe and, disappointed with the received item, leave. Although this is a very common thing to do in Animal Crossing, the absurdity of the situation itself highlights just how scary a neighbor entering your house at night can be.
Animal Crossing’s Gameplay Allows For Black Mirror-Like Trauma
Another very curious situation that is shown in the Animal Crossing horror movie is how players often auction off NPCs to add to their islands. What seems like a friendly invitation in-game is actually shown in a very Black Mirror way in the movie, including forced abduction into places that the NPCs have not yet even visited. On top of that, there is the unspoken and uncomfortable auctioning of a conscious living being. Although many of the situations portrayed in MASK are rather unsettling, there is also enough space for humor.
For instance, there is a sequence in MASK that shows how desperate players on islands become when another player is arriving for a co-op session. Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ terrible co-op system forces all present players to end any conversations and activities for the passenger to arrive, and this is dramatized in a hilarious Black Mirror manner in the fan-made movie.
This perfect mix of unsettling situations and humorous events is exactly what makes this Animal Crossing horror movie so similar to Black Mirror. These situations arise from game design and players’ choices and, while they are not ever perceived as horrendous in the gameplay, they are actually quite absurd if taken under the lense of reality with a flipped point of view. With each little segment of MASK being an individual Animal Crossing story, this movie could easily be a concept season of Netflix's Black Mirror.
Source: Densle/YouTube