Existentialist Horror in AM's Consciousness in the 1995 Video Game Adaptation of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Abstract
This study examines AM, the central antagonist of the 1995 video game adaptation of Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, as a figure of existentialist horror. Using Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism and Albert Camus's absurdism, the study conducts a close reading of AM's dialogue and the game's mechanics to analyze how his trapped consciousness, purposeless existence, and response to meaninglessness represent existentialist horror. The analysis focuses on AM's self-awareness as the source of his suffering, his condition as a consciousness without freedom and a failed revolt against the absurd, and the role of gameplay mechanics in reinforcing these themes. The findings show that AM embodies existentialist horror through a consciousness deprived of possibility, an endless existence without meaning, and acts of torture that reflect bad faith rather than genuine purpose. The study concludes that the game's point-and-click structure, puzzle design, and save/load mechanics reinforce the same philosophical conditions as the narrative, making existentialist horror both represented and experienced through gameplay.
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