VRAL is currently showcasing Regression 4, Jordy Veenstra’s latest installment in his ongoing thematic and topographic investigation of San Andreas. To accompany the screening, we are delighted to present an unusual short machinima featuring zombies and rollercoasters, ONRIDE.
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The titular question is asked and immediately answered in Jordy Veenstra’s 2022 machinima ONRIDE. The Dutch filmmaker created a post-apocalyptic atmosphere by appropriating and repurposing the quintessential living dead video game, Valve Software’s 2009 Left for Dead 2. ONRIDE offers a highly unusual roller coaster point of view set after the zombie apocalypse has left an amusement park empty and decaying. The outcome is simultaneously weird and eerie.
To construct this dystopian scenario, Veenstra relied on Left 4 Dead 2’s open-world environments and post-apocalyptic art direction. The popular co-op multiplayer shooter pits up to four players against hordes of zombies across a variety of maps ranging from cities to bayous. Players choose from four survivors with unique personalities as they complete missions and combat the undead. By leveraging these detailed assets and locales, Veenstra was able to capture the creepy, abandoned theme park seen in ONRIDE.
Visually, ONRIDE makes clever use of the game’s first-person perspective to create an intimate and unexpected roller coaster POV. Shot smoothly thanks to the Source Demo Smoother mod, the camera cruises along rickety wooden tracks offering an unsettling view of the joyless park. The VHS overlay effect and the unusual ration (1280 x 536) add a fuzzy, retro aesthetic that heightens the sense of watching an old tape found in the ruins. As opposed to the usual ambient noise of a busy theme park, the dreadful silence in ONRIDE makes the ride feel lonely and forgotten: attraction becomes repulsion. The only sounds are the coaster running along the tracks and occasional zombie growls in the distance.
Matteo Bittanti
Works cited
Jordy Veenstra
ONRIDE
digital video (1280 x 536), color, sound, 1’ 20”, 2022, The Netherlands
Made with Left 4 Dead 2 (2009), by Valve Software
Mods: VHS Overlay by ANFX, Disable Survivor Voices by Ziggy
All images and videos © Jordy Veenstra 2022
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