Research

In my Research into Psychological horror I've found Prezi's definition of the genre.

"Definition: Psychological horror is a sub-genre of horror fiction that reflects a character's fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot.

Psychological horror tends to be a lot more subtle than horror and also typically contains less physical harm.

The menace of horror comes from within. It expose the evil that hides behind normality, while "Splatter Fiction" focuses on bizarre, alien evil to which the average viewer cannot easily relate."

In this definition it explains how it's less about physical violence and more about playing into ones fears and feelings. As such I want to play into that and explore themes of Depression, Loneliness, Control, and Existentialism that is presented by the source material. Also the use of music shall also help set the mood and tone, and unnatural and eerie sounds will be used subtly throughout. I specifically want to play on the more subtle and thematic aspects of the genre to create an unsettling atmosphere throughout that comes to a crescendo at the Deletion of the characters. The one difference between this genres conventions and my drama is that there will be death in the form of the deletion of characters, and there will be an emphasis in the horrific nature that comes from being erased from existence, both through the physical representation of the pain and the concept of it in itself. In this it plays more into traditional horror themes, but still has elements of psychological horror and emotional manipulation.

The next thing I looked at was a radio drama related to the genre my idea pertains to called "The Forbidden". Throughout it disturbing sounds and atmospherics where used to keep the audience from being relaxed even in the calmer moments. It also uses a lot of Contrapuntal music that's been made eerie to add to the effect. aside from those Non Diegetic sounds there's a lot of instances of Diegetic sounds being used to great effect such as the sweet wrappers in the room. How real it sounds immerses the listener in the horror and unsettles them more. Throughout the narrative there's a major recurring theme of Nonsense vs Normalcy, an untypical set of opposites, but still fits Levi Strauss' Theory. Immediately it would seem that the Nonsense of the 'Candyman' is invading the normal live of the main character and her nightmares, but it is later found out that it is the other way around, with people invading the Candyman's peace, his own form of Normalcy. If we also look into Todorov's Equilibrium Theory then we see that while everything appears normal at the start, it's Disequilibrium as the nightmares of the main character effect her life and her relationship isn't as stable as it first appears. Later it falls further into Disequilibrium at the reveal that the Candyman is real and murders happened. It only gets to a kind of Equilibrium when the main character accepts the Nonsense of the Candyman and presumably lets her lover get hurt or killed by him as a 'Sacrifice', although it still seems like a point of Disequilibrium as what would be perceived as the negative force comes out on top.
The main points from all of this I wish to take are:
- The uses of Contrapuntal Non Diegetic music to unsettle the listener.
- The use of eerie echoing Pleonastic Diegetic sounds to make the atmosphere of the area seem almost unnatural and immerse the listener in an uncomfortable and creepy environment.
- The narrative Opposition of Normalcy vs Nonsense along with ending with narrative Disequilibrium as the main characters get deleted and killed and things are left unresolved. This will be to cause the listeners to feel unsettled ans uncomfortable by the end.

After researching into the BBFC Guidelines I have decided that my radio drama would only be suitable as an 18. This is due to how the 15 rating prohibits Dangerous Behaviour such as Suicide and Self Harming being depicted in too much detail, which in both the source material and my Drama will. In the source material (which people who don't know about might find after listening to my drama) there are graphic depictions of self harm through both neck snapping and cutting the arms, suicide through both hanging and live stabbing in front of the player, and other issues such as depression, abuse, neglect, obsession, and existential revelations. Of these the suicide will not come up, but Direct mentions and depictions of arm cutting, neglect, depression, abuse, obsession, and existential revelations. Thus for that reason it shall be an 18.

Finally I would like to present the extensive research I have on Doki Doki Literature Club!, which this radio drama is based off of. The primary place to find a lot of this information is at the Fan made Wiki as it has full detailed explanations of everything without worrying about spoilers (which is important because this game is entirely designed with a deceptive surface in mind, and so most places, especially the main website, hides spoilers so not to spoil, but does leave a lot to be desired in terms of research material). Due to the difference in genre I shall mostly look at the narrative as that's the more important and stressed part of the game. Narratively It twists and turns as it requires 4 different consecutive playthroughs or 'acts' to fully complete, And even then a lot of it is subject to which route you pick as the first act lets you pick between 3 girls, and the second lets you pick 2 as it is an interactive medium.
Overall it starts at Equilibrium with the Main Character (MC for simplicity) joining the literature club. Then after minor slice of life problems happen that are typical of any romantic visual novel, it turns very very dark very quickly. At the end of act one disequilibrium is abruptly shoved into your face as MC, and by extension you, walk into your best friend (and possibly lover by this point) Sayori's room to find her pale corpse hanging from the ceiling, having killed herself by noose after revealing the previous day that shes had depression a lot of her life. The game then breaks and glitches out and you are thrown back to the menu screen with all your save data being deleted and Sayori also being deleted from the game. In the second act the disequilibrium continues as Sayori is no longer present and its reviled that Monika did this. Furthermore she is now tampering with the personalities of the other two in an attempt to make them unlikable to MC and the player. This backfires with Yuri becoming obsessive over MC and results in them not able to spend any time around the others. After a lot more glitching and generally unsettling things happening which keeps up the general disequilibrium, it climaxes in Yuri's crazed confession to MC that she loves them. She proceeds to pull out a knife and stab herself three times and falls dead at his feet. Due to how badly broken the game is, MC is forced to sit and stay with Yuri for the entire weekend while her text-box displays glitched gibberish. When Natsuki walks in she pukes and runs off, and then Monika comes in and in front of MC deletes Yuri and Natsuki. This brings us to act 3 in which there is only MC, Monika, and a Classroom. Thus far there has been no complete Equilibrium since the start, and this the closest the player gets to it as Monika explains everything shes done, makes the player aware that not all of the effects where intentional, giving them some level of closure. Nothing much happens unless you delete Monika from the game yourself. If you do so she starts to apologise after confusion and hate in the first few seconds. This gives more closure and results in getting closer to equilibrium. She creates a new instance of the game with the characters brought back to life and nothing having happened and deletes herself, Bringing the player to act 4. Everything seems normal and things go as normal aside from Monika not being there, bringing the player to a true Equilibrium once again. That is until it is revealed that Sayori is now self aware like Monika was, and attempts to do what Monika did in act 3, bringing us back to disequilibrium. What is left of Monika comes and deletes Sayori, and expresses that there cannot be happiness in the literature club since no matter what there will be a president of the club and thus someone who becomes self aware and insane. She presents a song and a note during the credits of the game and then proceeds to delete the game, which itself is both a disequilibrium and an equilibrium as its sad that none of the characters can be happy, but also nice that everything got wrapped up and ended.
As a whole each character changes archetype from the start at least once. At the start in act 1 MC is the hero, the three dateable girls are princesses, and Monika is a dispatcher as she asks you to make poems. In act two, MC becomes less of a hero and more of a victim of what happens to him while Natsuki becomes a Helper trying to warn the player, Yuri becomes a false princess as she tries to get the player to be with her, but ultimately isn't stable enough to survive to become MC's princess (also she isn't obviously someone who you would want to be with during this time anyway). Its also important to note that Yuri could also be taken as a false villain as she hinders the players decisions and forces them to spend time with her, but this is mostly due to Monika's meddling, making her the true villain. In act 4 (because act 3 is the same, just missing the other two girls) Sayori now becomes a villain and Monika becomes a false villain as she saves the player from Sayori and then ends it all.
Finally, with binary opposites, Control vs Freedom comes up a lot, as everyone with control in the game becomes insane and obsessive over the player. Also while Love is presented as a theme there's never really anything to oppose it aside from other types of Love with the game showing different ways it can be good or bad.
Out of all of these I will probably take the most inspiration from the way the mood progresses in the game with Equilibrium and how suddenly it shifts from one extreme to the other.