Xbox and Compulsion Games released a new documentary about the making of South of Midnight, and while we enjoyed it, it raised a strange question in our heads.
Compulsion loved to talk about how the game is magical realist, and Southern Gothic. We can see the Southern Gothic themes, but what if this game isn’t really magical realism in the same way that A Gabriel García Márquez novel is. What if it’s really more of an isekai? The most American isekai that has ever been made, in fact?
So, we realize this question seems fanciful, so we’ll define these terms so you can take this idea more seriously. Southern Gothic may sound like an exotic theme, but it’s more familiar than you think.
That classification may include dark horror movies like Angel Heart, The Beyond, and Lemora, and some grimy crime films like Black Snake Moan and Bloody Mama. But it also includes certified All-American classics like To Kill A Mockingbird, A Streetcar Named Desire, and for a more recent film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Because Southern gothic is about capturing a spirit of American culture, one that may not always be pleasant, but is recognizably authentic.
Magical realism is broadly described as the incorporation of fantastic elements into a realistic world, but that paints too broad a brush. Magical realism is distinctly different from conventional fantasy fiction, if you were thinking about the Murakami and Morrison novels you love reading.
Because if there is a clear separation between Harry Potter’s world in Hogwarts and back in Surrey, there is deliberate ambiguity if the Buendias really did all the incredible things they did in the town of Macondo. To put it simply, magical realism doesn’t explain and define the borders of reality and fantasy, such that even the people in the real world may not realize they are living in a fantasy.
And if there’s anything we’ve seen in this documentary, it’s that Compulsion Games has put a lot of work into worldbuilding a Southern Gothic world that they invented themselves. And maybe Shakin’ Bones and Catfish know they are fantastic, but in a magical realist world, they may not look like fantasy creatures at all.
So I return to my original thesis, that South of Midnight is closer to an isekai. Now, it doesn’t look like Hazel falls into a wormhole or reincarnates into this fantasy Southern US, like how it does in most isekai. But Hazel is forced to adapt into another world, and it just so happens that her being an athlete gives her natural abilities to face supernatural threats.
In all earnest, this documentary tells a fantastic story about how they’ve been creating an original story of their own. Canada-based Compulsion Games decides to make a deeply American story, and brings in real Southern Americans, as well as getting help from places as far away as London.
This documentary doesn’t really tell us all that much about the game’s technical aspects. Thankfully, Parris Vicious made sure to get the 411 on what we wanted to know from the onset. If you do have the thirty minutes, we’re certain you’ll enjoy watching this documentary below.
