horror and architecture- ancient gods, old mansions and the undead

8/2/2019 Horror and architecture- Ancient gods, old mansions and The Undead

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/horror-and-architecture-ancient-gods-old-mansions-and-the-undead 1/12

STOCKHOLMS ESTETISKA GYMNASIUM

Horror and architecture

Ancient gods, old mansions and the undead

Jacob Hartman

2011-04-26



Today, when we watch or read a horror story, we watch/read a well-defined concept. A

concept that have been created through years of experimentation with what scares us as

individuals, and as a crowd. From what I believe is the starting point of modern horror, the

gothic stories (originally taking place in old gothic ruins), The entity that is fictional horror

have changed both shape and form multiple times. In a way, you could say that the horror

genre reacts to its societal surroundings. For example, H.P. Lovecraft and E.A. Poe both

wrote during the romanticist period, which I believe can be seen in their way of choosing to

depict situations with some sort of critique embedded towards the naivety romanticism could

result in. In his text “Supernatural horror in literature”, Lovecraft writes the following about

his colleague Poe;

“ He saw clearly that all phases of life and thought are equally eligible as a subject matter for

the artist, and being inclined by temperament to strangeness and gloom, decided to be the

interpreter of those powerful feelings and frequent happenings which attend pain rather than

pleasure, decay rather than growth, terror rather than tranquility, and which are

fundamentally either adverse or indifferent to the tastes and traditional outward sentiments of

mankind, and to the health, sanity, and normal expansive welfare of the species. ”1

Here Poe is clearly described as a writer above his times conformist demands, and as someone

who saw importance in writing about every aspect of life, even those of darkness and fear.

This, I believe proves how the true innovators usually stray outside the framework of society,

and what is approved by the great mass, horror authors included. By finding new strings to

pluck on the instrument that is society, Poe attracted attention, just like George A. Romero

chose to play in another direction, by simplifying the concept of horror with blood and gore,

but with an extremely sublime fear factor embedded beneath it (more on this from page 7-12).

1Supernatural horror in literature (H.P Lovecraft)



To summarize, I believe that horror changes through time simply because society does. Since

it is a genre so reliant on the current state of our minds, and our fear, this is only logical.

In this paper, I will be looking at three horror milestones. To understand what horror have

been in the past, I will look closer at two short stories (“The Call of Cthulhu”, by H.P

Lovecraft, and “The Fall of The House Of Usher”, by Edgar Allan Poe), and to represent

modern horror, I have chosen the original “Dead” trilogy by George A. Romero. The main

things I will be looking at is:

What role architecture plays in the overall horror experience

How and if there is any abnormality contributing the horror experience

Finally, I hope to reach some sort of conclusion on what role these two aspects play in the

overall horror experience, past and present.

Gothic horror-the short stories

The Call of Cthulhu (H.P Lovecraft)

This story begins when the anthropologist Francis Wayland Thurston, being the only heir of

George Gammell Angell, inherits his estate. As he starts to go through professor Angell´s old

documents, he finds information of an ancient cult, worshipping an ancient god called

“Cthulhu”. As Francis unravels more information, he also wanders deeper and deeper into a

terrifying phenomenon there is no escaping from…



As we had a collective reading of this in our class, I was surprised of how many did not find

this story to be scary. I, myself, found it terrifying. And ironically, I do not think I got more

scared throughout the entire story than I got from reading the opening:

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the hu man mind to correlate

all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity,

and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own

direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated

knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein,

that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace

and safety of a new dark age. Theosophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the

cosmic cycle wherein our world and human race form transient incidents. They have hinted at

strange survivals in terms which would freeze the blood if not masked by a bland optimism.

But it is not from them that there came the single glimpse of forbidden aeons which chills me

when I think of it and maddens me when I dream of it.”2

“It was not meant that we should voyage far.” In this entire paragraph, I believe this is the one

statement that brings the most chills down my spine. As soon as my imagination got hold of

me, I started thinking about things greater than we could ever imagine, and beings we were

never meant to know of. And as the paragraph goes on, it describes these things as so

horrifying they would “freeze the blood”, if they were not masked. As my mind then starts to

add that first statement with the rest, I start picturing this juggernaut so horrifying, that there

is nothing in this world that can hold it back. As I have read this intro, I am in a state of utter

powerlessness, and therefore, the fact that “The call of cthulhu” actually does not really have

a plot does not impair the overall horror experience. To me, the powerlessness hovered over

the entire story, even in those moments that could even be perceived as safe. And, finally, as

2 ”The Call of Cthulhu”, p.1



the stars are right and the ancient city of stone, with angles and shapes unknown to man, rises

from the sea, Cthulhu awakens.

The architecture of the sunken city also helps the feeling of infinity, with its impossible angels

and constructions. In this story, the monster that is Cthulhu is less of a fear than what he

represents, which is everything we do not understand, and have no power holding back.

Surely, in this story architecture does play some role, as the amplifier of a mood setting, but I

believe what makes it scary lies more within the social abnormalities, and the loss of control.

Cthulhu

The Fall of the house of Usher (Edgar Allan Poe)



Roderick and his sister Madeline are the last of the honored “House of usher”. Both Roderick

and his sister lives together alone in the old mansion, that have stood where it stands for

centuries. Peculiarly, they both suffer from disease, most likely an effect of the fact that the

family tree of Usher is simply one descending line, meaning a high degree of incestual

relationships. Sick and depressed, Roderick pens a letter to a boyhood friend, as a matter of

fact, the only friend Roderick ever had. In the letter he invites him to keep him company for

some time, to help ease the depression. As the childhood travels to live in the house of Usher,

with the last of the house of Usher, more darkness unveils about the house and its inhabitants

than just mere depression…3

Unlike “The call of Cthulhu”, the horror elements of this story relies considerably on the

architectural elements. As a matter of fact, you could say that the house is a character of its

own in this story. As Roderick descends deeper into himself, he also starts to talk more about

the house of Usher as an entity, carrying a curse, or a predetermined path for its inhabitants. If

you look closer at the conditions which Roderick and Madeline suffer from, you can also

distinguish a sort of pattern forming between them and the house. While Roderick’s condition

is described as “An acuteness of the senses”4, meaning him reacting extremely to everything

related to his senses (eyesight, hearing, and his skins intolerance to sunlight, for example).

Madelines symptoms is described more as if she moves further and further away from the

physical world, and becomes more notably physically ill than Roderick. From one

perspective, you could say that Roderick represents the sensitive side of mankind, since he is

also very cultural, plays violin and guitar (amongst the few sounds he can endure), paints, and

reads. Madeline then represents the purely physical aspect of mankind, since her symptoms

clearly affect her physically but alienates her senses and her ways of communication.

3 “The fall of the house of Usher”(Edgar Allan Poe)

4 ”The fall of the house of Usher” (Edgar Allan Poe)



Together, you could say they create the ideal image of the human mind. So, what role does

the house play? As the two siblings fall to an almost simultaneous death, the house trembles

and completely breaks down. Why does it do this? One pretty simple way to look at it would

be that the last two cursed inhabitants of the Usher house is dead, and that the house can then

go down, making sure the house of Usher is completely annihilated. Another, more symbolic

and pretty platonic way would be that the house represents the human exterior, which breaks,

leaving nothing behind when there is no mind to give it life, that somehow the mind, with its

different constituents, is an entity of its own, meanwhile it still functions in symbiosis with

the exterior; One cannot exist on an earthly level without the other. To summarize, the horror

element in this story I think is, alike “The call of Cthulhu” mostly based on the characters, and

the sadness that surrounds them. However, even if the house does not affect you that much by

its appearance, it strongly affects the characters of the story, making it one of the main

elements in the plot.



Modern horror-behind the blood and gore

When I chose a branch to represent modern horror, I tried to choose a branch that somehow

presents how horror have kept some of the founding elements, but also how they have been

modified to suit today’s society. The branch I chose was that of the zombie apocalypse. In this

part, I will mainly focus on the movie “Dawn of the dead” (the original one from 1978). I will

also compare it to the two short stories I have presented above, to see where they have things

in common, and where they do not.

Zombies?

The myth of the dead coming back to life have been around for a very long time in various

forms. For example, the term zombie originates from the Vodou culture, describing someone

in trance because of a magic ritual. I believe the cultural reference to zombies as walking dead

have occurred from a clash between this Vodou culture, and the more conservative Christian

belief in the so called “Rapture”, the end of times, when the dead shall supposedly rise from

their graves. Therefore, it is not surprising to find a lot of religious references in some zombie

movies, for example an old preachers famous quote from “Dawn of the dead”, saying: “When

there is no more room in hell, we must stop the killing.” Today, almost all zombie -apocalyptic

movies refer to one of two ways of the so called zombie infection spreading:

1. The more mystical infection, where everyone who dies simply comes back to life, with

an insatiable hunger, meaning that they will feed on the remaining humans, who will

also wake up (what is left of them) and become undead. Surviving the bite of a zombie



in this version is more of being poisoned than infected. You will die and become a

zombie, but it is still not a viral infection, but more of dying and coming back because

of poisoning. It is in these movies the biblical references are most frequently found.

2. The scientifically explainable infection. In this version, the spread of the walking

dead is explained by a virus that attacks the brain, killing the infected, but keeping the

main body functions going. With only a small, primal part of the brain functioning, the

now walking dead is only driven by instinctively feeding, preferably on the people

around it (for example the comic book “The walking dead”, or the “Resident evil”

series). There are some versions where the virus is explained as airborne, simply

infecting everyone except for a few immune people (for example “I am legend”).

Dawn of the dead

As the entire world is falling apart because of a mysterious phenomenon bringing back the

dead to life with an insatiable hunger for human flesh, a news-helicopter pilot named Stephen,

his girlfriend Francine and two S.W.A.Ts named Roger and Peter escape the city with the

stolen news helicopter. Searching for a safe place to land, they come across a big shopping

mall, which they use as a sanctuary. At first, this mall seems like an ideal safehouse, but not

for long…

As you can see above, most of this movie takes place inside this barricaded shopping mall,

and the path towards isolating it from the infection. So naturally, architecture does play a

large role in this movie. Like this movie, the plots of the other two parts of the trilogy depends

on architectural elements (The first one, “The night of the living dead” mainly takes place in

an old house on the countryside, while the third one, “The day of the dead”, mostly takes

place in an underground military bunker). What is interesting about this is that Romero has



chosen three types of architecture that each represent an aspect of modern society. We have

the agricultural society, represented by a house on the countryside, with its own gas pump and

shed. We have a shopping mall, a clear symbol of consumerism, which, in the 70s when this

movie was made was a relatively new concept, and the military bunker, an obvious symbol of

military power. Another very interesting aspect in Romero’s movies is that it is never solely

the zombies who finally break down the barricades and kills the inhabitants, but it is always a

consequence of internal conflicts amongst the barricaded survivors that helps create an

opportunity for the zombies to get inside. The Mall, the country side house, and the bunker all

contribute to the horror element of the stories in the way that they all, in their greatness, gives

a feeling of sublimity, and makes the characters appear smaller in strength, which scares you

as a spectator, and worries you. As the nightmare rages on outside the barricade, and you

mostly get to see life inside the barricade, it also gives your imagination a lot to work with,

since it makes the spread of the zombie infection seem huge, mostly because we never really

get any numbers or precise images, only mere stories from the survivors, who are also from

all kinds of places. To summarize, I believe the architecture in “Dawn of the dead” serves a

purpose to the story not very unlike the architecture of the sunken city in “The Call of

Cthulhu”. Even if the shape and purpose of the shopping mall is far more graspable, it stills

gives you a feeling of infinity, in relation to what goes on outside, just like the sunken city is

scary partly because of what it is, but also because it relates to this scary phenomenon no one

knows that much about, and probably never will. Since we do not know why, where or how

the zombies spread, they could have been brought here by powers we cannot explain through

the information we are given, and therefore we get that same feeling of confusion and

helplessness. You could also connect the architecture of “Dawn” to that of “The house of

Usher”, in the way that the characters lives depend on the safe house. As the safe house gets

such a big role in who lives and who dies, in a way, it becomes an entity of its own in the



story. Sure, the flesh eating zombies are the physical threat, but are they the main antagonistic

element in the story? I believe it is the barricaded safe house that, when it breaks, or lets them

in, and requires constant reparation, becomes the main obstacle between the survivors and a

safe life inside, and therefore becomes the main antagonist of the story.

Dawn of the dead

As you can see, it is clear that the horror stories of old have had some kind of influence and

inspiration on those who have decided to create horror-related literature and movies in

modern time. The reason I believe as to why they can sometimes feel so separated is simply

because the horror genre have adapted itself to the society it thrives in, just like I am sure that

Poe and Lovecraft did in their time. Poe and Lovecraft might have wanted to shine the light

on social issues related to the spiritual and dualistic, which would not be unlikely, since they

both wrote during a time where the balance between reason and emotion were frequently

discussed. Romero might have wanted to shine the light on the importance of a unified human

race, and the devastating effects of consumerism. True or not, it is clear that they have all

created horror based on what scares us the most, which is the horror we can all relate to. In the

end, I believe what scares us the most is ourselves, and the dark corners of our mind.

horror and architecture- ancient gods, old mansions and the undead

Documents