Granny was all the rage in 2018. The low-quality, poor graphics, plot-lacking mobile horror had us all in its grasp – and it continues to hold onto me.
Popularised by YouTubers in 2018, the game placed you locked in your Granny’s house with the goal of escape. Being careful and quiet, you had to sneak about the house to find various keys and tools to escape. If you make a noise, she comes running. You could hide in wardrobes and under beds – but she would find you and suddenly fill the screen with a horrifying screech. Young teenagers across the country would scream from the back of the bus as they failed to complete the jump-scare-filled sneak game. Of course, the graphics were too poor to provoke a real reaction – but to fragile 14-year-old me, the scare stuck.
The trend only lasted two weeks, however somehow Granny lives on. Sneak missions in video games now fill me with strange, unjustified anxiety that makes the experience rather unpleasant. When playing Hogwarts Legacy recently, sneaking into the restricted section of the Library took me far too long – the sense of anxiety that a screaming, horrible face would lurch towards me was all I could picture. There was something lurking in my mind, a memory of the fear found in Granny that gripped me.
Although I am a naturally jumpy person (scared by noticing my jacket on the back of my door) surely a silly viral mobile horror game should not have such a pungent lasting effect? Surely, six years later at 20 years old, I should be able to let it go and enjoy my fun little Harry Potter game.
The way this dark, free-to-play horror game that should remain a remnant of a long-gone past continues to affect my gaming to this day is a fascinating phenomenon that I feel a strange desire to study. I’m hardcore, I can do horror – so why not this game? Why on Earth does it linger so long after? It infuriates and fascinates me. For a silly little trend that lasted barely two weeks six years ago and yet, at every sneak mission in a real grown-up game, it haunts me. Granny’s face appears in my mind’s eye, a scream in the echo chambers of my memory, a whiff of unwelcome nostalgia finding me in my adult years.
If anyone knows how to shake Granny from the grasp of my memory then please, tell me so I can once again enjoy the thrill of sneak missions.
(I confess that writing this article genuinely scared me)
Featured Image Credit: DVloper via Granny Wiki (User OverTheHorizon2005)