notes for concept 1

8/3/2019 Notes for Concept 1

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Moive 2003, Based on Lovecrafts talehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378760/

A Concept Illustration from:http://pyracanthasketch.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

Notes for Concept 01 : The Shunned House, by H. P. Lovecraft


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A photograph of possibly the shunned house Lovecraft wrote about, good for referenceimage at least (From: http://sweasel.com/archives/category/history )

From: http://www.dangerousminds.net/tag/Literature



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Some other interpretations of The Shunned House:

From: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31469/31469-h/31469-h.htm

From: http://www.sueursfroides.fr/critique/colour-from-the-dark-1678

Useful links:http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/fiction/sh.asp



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Main Storyline of the whole book:

Descriptions of the House:


Eastern Side of the street- Depending ontime of day for the painting, the light would bein a place to show the positioning of thehouse.

Dingy, antiquated structure perched on theabruptly rising hill-side.

Greatly unkept yard.

Semi-farm building, it followed the NewEngland colonial look of the middleeighteenth century - Prosperous peaked-roof, two stories, dormerless attic (nodictionary results for dormerless), Georgiandoorway, interior panelling showed the tasteat the time.

Faced south, one gable (the portion of thefront or side of a building enclosed by ormasking the end of a pitched roof) end buried

to the lower windows in the eastward risinghill, the other exposed to the foundationstoward the street.

Western wall had been 20 ft up but wassheered off.

Brick basement wall, giving the deep cellar astreet frontage with a door and two windowsabove ground, close to the line of publictravel.

Sheer ascent of dull grey brick flush with thesidewalk and surmounted at a height of 10ftby the antique shingled bulk of the house.

Farm-like grounds extend back very deeplyup the hill.

The space south of the house: greatly abovethe existing sidewalk level, forming a terracebounded by a high bank wall of damp, mossystone pierced by a steep flight of narrowsteps which led inward between canyon- likesurfaces to the upper region of mangy lawn,rheumy brick walls, and neglected gardenswhose dismantled cement urns, rusted kettles(kettles for boiling water or an alternativemeaning?) fallen from tripods of knotty sticks,

similar paraphernalia set off the weather-beaten front door (weather beaten Georgiandoor/ doorway) with broken fanlight, rottingIonic pilasters, and wormy triangularpediment ((in classical architecture) a lowgable, typically triangular with a horizontalcornice and raking cornices, surmounting acolonnade, an end wall, or a major division ofa faade.)

Dampness and fungus growth in the cellar.

sickish smell.

draughts in the hallways.

poor quality of the well and pump water.

Vacant, with barren, gnarled, and terrible oldtrees, long, queerly pale grass, andnightmarishly misshapen weeds in the highterraced yard.

Eldritch (of a strange country, pertaining tothe Otherworld) atmosphere and odour.

small- paned windows were largely broken,nameless air of desolation hung round theprecarious (unstable) panelling, shaky interiorshutters, peeling wall- paper, falling plaster,rickety staircases, fragments of batteredfurniture, dust and cobwebs.


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Ladder to the attic, a vast raftered lengthlighted only by small blinking windows in thegable ends

A massed wreckage of chests, chair, andspinning- wheels which infinite years ofdeposit had shrouded and festooned intomonstrous and hellish shapes.

Dank, humid cellar, above ground on thestreet side, thin door, window-pierced brickwall to separate it from the busy sidewalk.

White fungus growths sprang up in a rainysummer weather from the hard earth floor,

detestable parodies of toadstools and Indianpipes.

Slightly phosphorescent, like witch- firesglowing behind the broken panes of thefoetor- spreading windows.

Cloudy whitish pattern on the dirt floor - adeposit of mould or nitre.

Huge fireplace of the basement kitchen,yawning fireplace

Sinuous tree-roots thrust their way into thecellar through the loose foundation- stones.

Relevant Background info

Constructed over a century and a half ago

The street its on WAS a lane windingamongst the graveyards, straightened onlywhen the removal of the bodies to the NorthBurial Ground made it decently possible tocut through the old family plots.

Extremists described the house as unlucky

A frightful proportion of persons died there

After some peculiar happenings over sixty

years ago the building had become desertedthrough the sheer impossibility of renting it.

Thin, yellowish, shimmering exhalation risingfrom the nitrous - a similar notion entered intosome of the wild ancient tales of the commonfolk- a notion likewise alluding to ghoulish,wolfish shapes taken by smoke from thegreat chimney, and queer contours.


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Some images to link to descriptive words:

Georgian Doorway



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Ionic pilasters



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misshapen weeds

Pale, Weak Grass



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Old Crooked Trees



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Fungi



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Chests, chairs, spinning wheels



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Grey Brick Wall



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New England Colonies architecture



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Georgian Windows



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Broken windows



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Derelict House


notes for concept 1

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