Free
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- Online Lecture
Little Kingdoms: Leeds and West Yorkshire after the Romans
25 February 2026, 2pm to 3pm
Unconventional Weapons in Horror
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The use of scavenging as a tool for survival is a common feature across the Alien franchise, video games and films alike. But what if we told you that this fight to survive is designed to scare you?
In this talk, Dr Jennifer Cooke explores how the weapons players manage to make, and the actions that are (or are not) permitted to them, have the power to stoke fear.
Fear, games, and capital
Unconventional Weapons in Horror
Speaker: Dr Jennifer Cooke, Research Assistant, Newcastle University
The first part of the survival horror game Alien: Isolation features a notable lack of traditional weaponry. The player picks up ‘scraps’ to engineer something useable. Where weapons are available, how they become available, and the form they take, creates space where fear might take hold.
Theories around fear, games, and capital will come together in this lecture to examine how terrifying media makes you scared, and how horror games instigate and maintain their arms races.
This lecture will be delivered in-person at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds or you can watch online. A link to the live presentation will be on your booking confirmation email.
Image: M-41A Pulse Rifle, Royal Armouries
Book now
This lecture will be delivered in-person at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds or you can watch online. A link to the live presentation will be on your booking confirmation email.
This is a free lecture. Please consider making a donation to support more free lectures and events.
Royal Armouries is an exempt charity as listed in Schedule 3 of the Charities Act 2011 and is recognised as charitable by HM Revenue & Customs.
Book now