What: “Hitchcock Games”

Who: John Roberts, PhD Candidate in Moving Image Studies, Georgia State University

When: October 25, 2017, from 3-4:00 PM

Where: CMII Conference Room #211, 25 Park Place, Georgia State University

Alfred Hitchcock’s authorial legacy as the “Master of Suspense” extends far beyond his directorial output, encompassing television and a whole host of ancillary merchandising properties, including board and computer games. In this session of Playtest, we will explore the adaptation of “Hitchcock” as a brand identity to games by playing Alfred Hitchcock: The Unexplained, a murder/mystery party game that strives to reproduce the ‘Hitchcock’ experience. Given that Hitchcock famously analogized filmmaking to the act of playing the audience like an organ, the intersection of Hitchcock Studies and Game Studies allows us to ask, what is “Hitchcock,” how might it be related to games and other ‘interactive’ experiences, and how effectively (or not) have attempts to adapt Hitchcock for other media been, and what makes an adaptation successful (or not)?

John Roberts is a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia State University. His dissertation research explores the relationship between finance capital, aesthetics, and conspiracy is film, television, and new media.