498 Words About: Sleeping in the Crow Mauler’s Bed
The moment I saw the bird on the woman’s shoulder, I knew exactly what this room was. I still decided to sleep in the bed.
The nightmare that is the Crow Mauler, from the PC game Fear & Hunger, was “spoiled” by Super Eyepatch Wolf. But, honestly, I don’t care. Spoilers are not a major concern of mine because I’m always far more interested in how a work of media is structured than its actual content. After I watched his video about the game I downloaded it to my Macbook and just disappeared, relishing the horror and chaos that was exploring the dungeons and regularly getting one-punched by Ogres. I knew, thanks to the video, that sleeping in beds would leave the player vulnerable to attack by monsters, but the sheer randomness of each encounter made it such that I didn’t know if I’d be captured by the dungeon’s torturer or skinned by lizard men.
Also I’ve died by Harvestman.
I know how bad it can get.
Fear & Hunger is a videogame that is considered, by many, to be relentlessly cruel. Having played the game now several times, and having never gotten past the second level basement, and having been killed by the Harvestmen, I can confirm that sentiment. Fear and Hunger is relentless in its cruelty.
That’s why I love it.
That’s also why I slept in the bed, and cracked my knuckles as I watched the cut-scene of the cretin watching my character while they slept. The game advised me not to sleep in it again. I didn’t listen, and I woke up to the shrill rasp of crows.
I didn’t go into the fight with the expectation to win. I was playing as the knight, but at that point in the game I had no companions and didn’t even have a helmet to protect my face. Which is exactly why, in the timespan of two moves the Crow Mauler used his attack “Peck” and literally ate my head. Credits rolled and I was done…until I loaded up my save, and slept in the bed again. I fought the Crow Mauler three times before I started a new game because…honestly, I just wanted to see what would happen.
I’ve approached Fear & Hunger intellectually the way I approached picking up big rocks in my Mom’s garden when I was a kid: it would always result in some new discovery of life that was considered grotesque, and over time I began to recognise the sorts of animals that would live there. Spiders, isopods, beetles, slugs, worms, and snails would scitter away from the light, my presence an alien disruption.
Lifting the rock wasn’t sadistic on my part. I wanted to see these creatures as they actually existed. I thought it was beautiful.
Exploring the dungeon of Fear & Hunger is a painful experience, but in its darkness are creatures like the Crow Mauler that are just existing, until someone walks in and lifts the rock, or sleeps in their bed.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
7.29.2024
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