Some places are like some people: some shine and some don’t.

The Gothic is not just found in literature; even today, we can experience the Gothic, especially in film.

One common element of both Gothic fiction and film is space, or, in most cases, the house. A house plays an important part in many Gothic tales, including Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lovely House,” Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, among, I’m sure, many others. In all of these works, the houses are not any ordinary houses; if they are not outright haunted, there is at least something strange about them.

It’s interesting how the idea of the haunted space continues to chill audiences. Commonly, contemporary horror movies feature a house which is haunted (or at least creepy). Movies like The Haunting, The Shining, The Grudge, and even lighter films like Beetlejuice and Casper feature haunted houses.

So what exactly is with the fascination with haunted houses? Perhaps it is an obsession with the supernatural; or, maybe it expresses a fear of the unknown, especially if that unknown is malicious and could invade what is supposed to be a safe space. Whatever the case, the element of the haunted house continues to successfully gain and keep people’s attention.

Title quote source: The Shining. Dir. Stanley Kubric. Perf. Jack Nicholson. 1980.

~ by courtneekirax on April 28, 2008.