Digital Dread: A Comparative Analysis of the “Final Girl” in Supermassive Games’ The Quarry and The Dark Pictures Anthology:

This study explores the adaptation of slasher film conventions to interactive digital narratives in horror video games, focusing on Supermassive Games’ The Quarry and The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me . Using Carol Clover’s “Final Girl” theory as a framework, the research examines how slasher archetypes are reinterpreted in video games, where player choices create multiple narrative outcomes. Drawing on a qualitative approach to discourse analysis based on the reading of the narrative, visual, and textual elements of both games, the analysis highlights deviations from traditional slasher structures, particularly through the relationship between the characters. Both games integrate slasher elements while diverging in key areas due to player agency, thus challenging the genre’s rigid conventions. Ultimately, the study suggests that, despite interactive freedom, video games retain the structural constraints of their cinematic origins, limiting the transformative potential of slasher tropes in the medium.