Does every fan of gothic literature, or only of the gothic genre, know Edgar Allan Poe? If not, you should definitely read some of his works. He mostly writes short stories, each more disturbing than the previous one. So, I figured I would do something very different than what I usually do here. I wrote a poem related to The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, written in 1843. If you do not know what it is, briefly, it is the story of a young man, killing a presumably blind old man for he has a pale blue eye that frustrates him. Of course, this is a very brief summary, but you may certainly want to read the short story before the following poem.
Like a Veiled Vulture Eye
Admit it. Too loud it is.
It beats. Again and again, louder and louder.
How could they know? They did.
They felt my agony, fear filled my fearful heart
Did they hear it too? Did EYE even?
Sure like vultures they smelled it, circled it.
They found it, and death it is.
The EYE was damned anyway.
Why keep lying? EYE was dead.
Horror went away with it, him, EYE. Old man kept it.
Brought it with its last breath in the dark depth of
deep death.
Terror never left, how could it? The veil still is.
The I EYE was furious about. Not the old man. EYE
swears. Not mad. EYE swear.
In the night, he went cold, paler and paler.
EYE cannot remember. Blue
Was it how it looked like? Was it?
Pale days and dark nights. Oh yes.
Blue it was.
But he did not know.
What interest was there in it if he knew? None EYE’d
say.
EYE had secret that he ignored.
Ignorance killed him. EYE did not. Swear.
EYE lived for nothing. Out of all things nothing.
I loved the old man. I did and I do. It was only his
EYE.
Hannibal Lecter… For those who
know who this man is, does the only mention of his name give you goosebumps? What
do you feel when hearing about him if not fear? Well, maybe you think he is
somehow nice, and you feel empathy for him, but either way, Lecter is a very
interesting character, and this is why I decided to see what makes him so
frightening for most people. The novel I will take as a reference in this post
is The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas
Harris, originally published in 1988.
The first thing is that he is
in fact a very charismatic man. For example, when Clarice Starling, the
investigator, goes to the psychiatric hospital to meet with Lecter, a patient
called Miggs talks to her in a crude and rude way, which would suggest that
this man may be mentally deranged. On the contrary, during her first visit at
the hospital, Lecter is extremely polite with her, and acts like a gentleman.
Indeed, his gentleman-like behaviors make him even more scary since there is no
way someone can know whether he is “good” or “bad” without previously knowing
from the beginning that he murders people to eat them afterwards.
Lecter needs information to use
his psychological power. Without information, he is lost. This means that
without information, he has nothing. This reminds us slightly of Dracula from
Bram Stoker’s novel, right? Dracula’s power comes from the information he
obtains from the blood he drinks, or from the years he has lived. Hence, to
stay alive in this modern world, he seeks information. It is similar in the
case of Hannibal Lecter. He is indeed a surgeon, but also a psychiatrist. Psychiatry
requires a superior knowledge of how the human brain works, and also of social
behaviors, which can often be associated to different mental illnesses. Therefore,
a psychiatrist must know his or her patients in order to help them properly. The
problem in Lecter’s case is that he may be too good at his job, for he
instantly knows much information even before the person tells anything.
Moreover, once he is told some information, he is able to play with one’s mind
to make him or her do what he wants to a certain extent. An example of his need
of information is when Clarice Starling investigates the case of Fredrica
Bimmel, and for all the information he gives her, he asks for information about
her in return, despite the fact that Crawford clearly told her to avoid revealing
to him any personal information.
Briefly, if you are boring,
according to his standards, you will not last long. The issue is, we do not
know how Lecter defines “boring”. This means that there is no way we can adjust
to him to avoid being killed because we do not have any clues as to what he
considers as boring or not. Therefore, we are kept in obscurity when it comes
to Hannibal’s thoughts while this knowledge is the only thing that could
possibly save us from a horrible death. In other words, Hannibal does not need
to have a motif to kill. It does not matter to him whether we did something
wrong or not. That is, he can decide to kill someone because that person did
something he disliked, or just because a person is not entertaining enough for
him.
Finally, the previous
characteristics make him the “perfect” serial killer, but they also show that
from the outside, he is the most ordinary human being. Hence, from this fact,
another frightful thought arises: there could be a Hannibal Lecter everywhere
we go. We do not know what is going on in other people’s minds, and if Lecter
is able to hide his true nature so well, then, how many people are able to do
it too?
After reading these traits of
character, are you now scared of Hannibal Lecter? I know there are many
opinions about whether he is good or bad, and it is actually quite interesting
to see that a serial killer can make people hesitate in that manner.
Are you one of those who think he is fundamentally good, or fundamentally bad? Or neither?
Do not worry, there will not be any spoilers in this post! There will
only be brief descriptions of the movies, so maybe you can discover some you
never heard about.
I put them in the same
category because both are part of the period during which the horror movie industry
focused on torture. When watching those movies, your feelings may be hurt, but
if you are also an empathetic person, you may also have the impression that you
actually feel what those people are feeling, and this is… well, quite
terrifying.
There are seven Sawmovies, originally titled Saw (2004), Saw 2 (2005) and so on, until the last one Saw 3D: Final Chapter (2010). After seven years of inactivity, another Saw film appeared called Jigsaw (2017). The question is, were Saw movies good enough so their comeback would revive the public’s interest? The answer is that yes, it was, but even though many people went to see it, maybe the producers should have left it with the unforgettable Saw 6 (2009). Anyway, all of these are definitely worth seeing if ever you like this genre, and most interesting is that these movies raise the question: what are we willing to do to save our lives?
As for the Human Centipede, I will not even
describe it, or give the link to a trailer, because these three movies are too
horrible. And I think that the previous sentence says it all, but I could not
omit to mention it in the list, so here it is.
There are two of those, The Descent (2005) and The Descent 2 (2009), and they are both terrifying, even though in my opinion, the first one is better. If you are claustrophobic, avoid watching this movie. At first sight, the first movie does not even look like it is going to be a horror movie as it is actually quite funny. But obviously, everything changes when all six girl friends go down in a dark cave, somewhere in the middle of the Appalachian Massif. No need to say that the movie happens in an extremely confined and dark place. And most evidently, they are not alone in that cave. I would like to tell you a little bit about the second movie, but there is no way I could do this without revealing the end of the first one, so it is for you to see!
So, A Quiet Place is quite recent and very, very good. The title gives a clue about how the movie will take place: mostly in silence. Sure, the characters will talk to each other, but quietly and rarely. Why is that so? The creatures in this movie are blind, but as the movie ad says, “if they hear you, they hunt you”, meaning that their hearing is excessively well developed. So briefly, the world has been taken over by those creatures, and a family of four built their own little life somewhere in an isolated place, but they obviously had to adapt to the new life conditions in order to stay alive. From what I wrote, it seems like we saw this same pattern a million times already, but I swear, this one is really good, and I cannot tell more than that for if I do, I may spoil some important events.
I could not list some great horror movies without mentioning one with ghosts, right? So here it is. Paranormal Activity is once again a series of films with a total of six movies. The first one was released in 2007, and the last one, Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension, in 2015. It is a classic ghost series with possessed people, demons and scary paranormal activity. But who does not appreciate classics once in a while?
Finally, well, the five movies in that series are not really frightening, but still some people die. However, they are parodies of many horror movies; for example, there is always that stereotypical blond-haired and slightly dumb girl, as well as the stupid teen group of friends. Of course, like every other parody, these films are exaggerated; that is what makes them funny. The first one was out in the theatres in 2000 and the last one, Scary Movie 5, in 2013. I think that the two first ones are the best. I hope you will have a great time!
That is it for the best horror movies, but I mean, these are just a few of them. There are so many more out there. I tried to make a list with various genres, so everyone could find one that he or she likes among these. Have fun! 😊
What elements make
a horror movie a “good” horror movie? There are obviously many of them, but an
important one is the monster(s) in it. We must admit that sometimes, a horror
movie is not even that good, but the monster in it is really interesting,
either because it is intellectually superior, or just because it is
unbelievably scary. In both cases, I thought it would be interesting to mention
some of the scariest movie monsters I know about, as well as the movies they
are presented in, so we can all be scared together! There are some of them that
are quite popular; others may be less known…
The first one I will mention is Freddy Krueger. Freddy’s
character is quite complex to explain, mainly because so many movies were made
with him as the principal villain. In fact, there are seven movies, which are A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream
Warriors (1987), A Nightmare On Elm
Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), A
Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), Freddy’s Dead – The
Final Nightmare (1991), New Nightmare
(1994)and Freddy Vs. Jason (2003). There
is even a remake of A Nightmare on Elm
Street (2010). The story of Freddy, in short, is that he was killed with
exposition to a deleterious gas, which explains why he looks like this. He was
executed because he was a serial killer, with a tendency to prey on children. But
he came back from the dead… unfortunate, isn’t it? So, he went on killing
children, often while they were asleep, which, in my opinion, makes it even
more terrifying.
The second one is Jason Voorhees.
Jason is also a serial killer, but unlike Freddy, he does not kill because he
“enjoys” it. Indeed, his motivations can be considered as more “valuable”. Jason
suffers from severe physical deformities and presumably mental disabilities.
For these reasons, he was persecuted in his childhood, most precisely at a
summer camp called Camp Crystal Lake, where his mother used to work as a cook. Briefly,
Jason killed for revenge, and to respect his dead mother’s wish for the camp to
stay closed. Does it justify his killing people? Probably not. But for a reason
or another, it does seem less troubling than Freddy’s motivations, right? In
case you would want to watch them, here is the series of films in which Jason is:
Friday the 13th (1980), Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), Friday the 13th Part III (1982), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
(1984), Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
(1985), Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason
Lives (1986), Friday the 13th Part
VII: The New Blood (1988), Friday the
13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), Jason X (2001) and Freddy vs.
Jason (2003).
Hannibal Lecter in the movie “The Silence of the Lambs” Image Source
Ok, now let’s talk about Hannibal
Lecter. Yes, there are movies about this monster, but obviously, the books are
better, and there are four of them. Anyway, the point is to talk about the
killer. Hannibal likes to eat humans. Isn’t this a disturbing fact in itself? The
most terrifying thing about Lecter is that he is incredibly intelligent. I
mean, everyone is afraid of a serial killer, but if the serial killer is more
intelligent than the vast majority of the population… It is better not to think
too much about it. Another disturbing thing is that Lecter can actually be a
gentleman, that is, a polite and kind man, as long as you entertain him. Yes,
you read well. As soon as he will be bored with you, you may end up in his
dinner plate. If ever his character would interest you, you may find him in: The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), Red Dragon (2002) and Hannibal
Rising (2007).
One of the three brothers in the movies “Wrong Turn” Image Source
Finally, the last monsters I want to
talk about are three brothers. Indeed, it is possibly a reference to Hannibal
Lecter, because these three brothers are cannibal. We do not know much about
them, except that they were presumably patients in an asylum which is now
abandoned, and for some reason, they are still in that asylum. Since we do not
know the characters very well, the reason I mention them is because if you like
trashy horror movies, then you will surely like these ones, and once again,
there are many of these: Wrong Turn
(2003), Wrong Turn 2: Dead End
(2007), Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead
(2009), Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings
(2011), Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines (2012)
and Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort (2014).
I personally had my hands covering my eyes for at least half of each movie. 😊
This is not a long list of monsters, but it is certainly a long list of movies involving these terrifying monsters. Have fun! 😊
Canada has many special legends and myths that were developed
through time. More precisely, French-Canadians have a very religious past. Various
artists used Quebec’s history and legends to create movies or music. If you do
not know about the province of Quebec, then one important thing is that before
it was called the “Province of Quebec”, it was known as “New France,” obviously
because it was a French colony. Quebec is the only French colony in Canada that
kept speaking French, and the population developed a culture of their own, with
a rich historical background. Thus, I figured it would be interesting to tell
you about some Quebec legends related to fantastic creatures, or frightful
ones.
One
day, a school of mermaids were traveling in the direction of the Mediterranean
Sea to reach the Red Sea, where their home was. Unfortunately, a group of
mermaids got lost on the way there, in the St. Lawrence Gulf, which is situated
at the mouth of the St. Lawrence river. Mermaids are known for their
irresistible charm. Seamen say that their songs and movements are graceful, and
pretend that in the sunlight, their skin looks like it is covered with a film
of gold. And so, one day, a mermaid jumped on the deck of a boat to ask a
seaman to remove the leeches on her fishtail. He agreed, but fell desperately
in love with her, forgetting about his wife and children. Hence, he followed
her in the depths of the water, and he was never seen again.
Nowadays,
they are lost between Magdalen Islands and Anticosti Island, hoping for a boat
captain who would agree to lead them back to their house.
Men Without Heads in the Escoumins
The
Escoumins is a little village bordered by the St. Lawrence river situated on
the North Shore. It is a site that used to be popular for trade because of its
advantageous geographic position. But even before that, it is said that some
pirates landed there to bury some treasures since it was an isolated site at
that time, and so, it was perfect to hide their gold. However, when they buried
their treasures, they were “picking on the short straw” for the one among them
who would be buried with the treasure to protect it from potential enemies. The
buried seamen had their head cut before they were buried with the treasures.
Nowadays, it is said that some of these headless pirate ghosts are seen, still
protecting what is theirs. Curiously enough, no one ever tried to find one of
their treasures… people probably prefer not to know what could happen to them
if they did!
This
legend comes from the book called “The Trafalgar Tower” or in French, “La Tour
de Trafalgar” written by Georges Boucher from Boucherville, in Montreal. The
author affirms that he went there himself to attest to the strange, presumably
paranormal phenomena that are going on there. Did he invent all of this, or is
it true? No one will ever know… The legend goes as follows:
In
Montreal, in the district called Côtes-des-Neiges is a small tower, the
Trafalgar Tower. One day, Leocadie, a beautiful 17-year-old girl who lived in
the district with her aunt, went to the church to do her devotions. While she
was there, a young man entered the church to admire it, and he saw Leocadie. He
instantly fell in love with her, with a violent and passionate love. He went
talking to her, and they started seeing each other as friends. After some time,
he learned from Leocadie’s aunt that her heart was already taken by another man
to whom she was engaged and about to get married. He thus swore he would take
his revenge against the one he once loved so much. The last thing he told her
before he left was: “See how red the sun is;
it is red like fire, like blood, like the blood that must flow”. The day before
their wedding, Leocadie and her fiancé were hiking at the mountain, the
mountain where the Trafalgar Tower stood. Then actually went to the tower, and
as soon as their feet touched the threshold of the door, a man, whom Leocadie
clearly knew, attacked them with a knife. First, he attacked her by stabbing
her with his knife, directly in her heart. Wanting to avenge Leocadie, her
fiancé jumped on the man. After a violent fight, the murderer finally strangled
him. The next day, both lovers were found dead, and the murderer was condemned
to a horrible death.
The
Trafalgar tower became a cursed place, and people who went there pretend that they
saw some blood on the walls and on the door. Moreover, everyone of them swore the
fear and anxiety they felt forced them to leave the place. Even more strange is
that they all said that while they were running away from the tower, they heard
some footsteps right behind them.
Oh well, as I mentioned previously, this legend was first told and then written by Georges Boucher, so who knows, maybe he invented it all. Or maybe not. Anyway, I would probably not test whether his affirmations about the place are true myself. These are just a few legends, but there are many more. If you are interested about Quebecer’s legends, I swear you will not be disappointed!
Don’t breathe or he’s gonna catch you! That’s the essential
statement of Fede Álvarez’s movie called Don’t
Breathe. Essentially, the movie is set in an old blind man’s house because
three young adults try to steal the money the rumors say he is living with.
Since the old man is blind, his earing is impeccable, which the three friends
did not expect. The old man ears each and every single noise they make in the
house. During their chase for the money, the young adults try to escape from
the dangerous old man, but he actually is able to keep them locked into his
house, which allows him to try to catch evildoers. While trying to escape, they
realize that the old man is getting nearer to them and that they are more and
more in danger. When they see the old man around, they try not to breathe to
make sure the blind man doesn’t find them. That is the principal reason why the
movie is titled that way, but I’ll let you discover whether or not the young
adults were finally able to get out!
The American horror movie focused mainly on the aspect of
terror. During then whole movie, the three offenders are really scared of what
the old man could do because they didn’t know him, and they weren’t aware of
what he could potentially do to them. The apprehension of the actions of the
man was the aspect that frightened the most the delinquents. During their
adventure in the blind man’s house, they finally discover what was the old man
really hiding in his house, once again I’ll let you discover it by yourself,
and the young adults reached a state of horror. The fact that they could see
the old man as well as the scary things in his house let the delinquents change
their feeling from terror to horror. The scenarist really focused on those two
important gothic motifs to create suspense and tension in his movie, which
makes it that good.
If you love horror movies, I really suggest you watch it. And
if you’re more afraid of this kind of movies, I suggest you still watch it, but
in daytime maybe! 😉
Not so long ago, I
read a thriller that is so far, one of the best books I’ve ever read. It is
called The Good Girl, written by Mary
Kubica. This literary piece is a very high-intensity thriller because the
actions you expect to happen are definitely not the ones that actually happen.
This novel is mainly considered as a psychological thriller, but I still found
some gothic elements in it and I wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to
explore a specific literary genre while including some gothic elements in it.
First of, the
archetype of the damsel in distress is the main element of gothic literature in
this thriller. Mia, the main character of the book, is in complete distress
after she’s been kidnapped by a certain guy named Colin. Even if she tries to
escape, it is impossible to achieve it and waits for the help f the police and
her family. On the other hand, Mia’s mother could also be considered as a
damsel in distress. She constantly tries to find ways to find her daughter but,
because she is depressed by the loss other daughter, she waits for the police
to help her out. In that way, she qualifies as a damsel in distress.
Colin Thatcher, Mia’s one-night stand, turn
out to be a sociopath who kidnaps her. Here, the monster archetype found in gothic
pieces is a human monster. Colin’s purpose to take Mia away from her family was
simply to hurt her. The monster generally generates terror and horror to the
victim, in this case Mia.
That is what leads
me to explain you the aspects of terror and horror in this psychological
thriller. On one hand, Mia is completely terrorised by Collin because she
anticipates what he could do to her. Terror is defined as the anticipation of
the scary, and that is exactly what Mia is doing and feeling. On the other hand,
there’s horror. Horror is the realization of what is scary when seeing it in
front of your eyes. In this case, Mia also feels it when she realizes that she
had been kidnaped and that she’ll probably never see her family again.
Simply, I suggest
you read this psychological thriller that can also enter in the gothic genre
because it has a lot of suspense and you’ll have difficulty to stop reading it,
I swear.
Recently,
I watched the new animation movie titled Coco.
This gothic animation piece revolves around the theme of death, but especially
the death of family members. I really appreciated this movie because, even
through animation and humour, the producer was able to convey an important
moral. This movie teaches the kids that they need to follow their dreams even
if there are many obstacles that prevent them of doing so. Furthermore, the
movie puts emphasis on the expression “seize your moment”, which teaches the
kids to wait for the right moment, and when it comes to take advantage of it.
Also,
through the adventures of Miguel, the main character of the movie, the author
of the movie show the dilemma that some people might have concerning the
realization of their dreams as opposed to the family values. For instance, at
the beginning of the movie, Miguel wants to realize his dream and become a
renowned musician; but because his entire family banned music from their lives,
he cannot achieve it. During the whole film, we could see Miguel go through
different obstacles that make him realize a lot of things, like the fact that
he could both achieve his desire to become a musician as well as being good and
helpful to his family.
The
psychological evolution of the different characters involved in Miguel’s quest
of music is an aspect that I really loved in this animation movie. In general,
his whole family really changes psychologically during the course of the movie.
At first, they are all “afraid” of music because they think it is the reason
for the break up of their entire family, but then, they realize that music
could have benefits for them. We could interpret this as a paradox because
instead of being the source of all the problems of the family over multiple
generations, music is actually what reconciliates the family.
Besides
the moral and familial aspects of the film, I was able to observe some elements
that correspond to gothic art and literature. First of all, the main theme is
certainly death, which corresponds to one of the main gothic elements. Next,
the elements of monster and terror are also found in this movie. For instance,
I considered De la Cruz, the international singer, to be the monster in this
story, since at the end, we learned that he was the cause of the family break
up and that he had killed his own best friend. On the other hand, the aspect of
horror is mostly represented when Miguel arrives in the afterlife and realizes
that dead people are talking to him and that he is not in the real world
anymore. Also, there are supernatural elements in this story, like the presence
of different colorful animals with superpowers, like the giant panther with the
wings. We generally don’t see this in our lives! 😉
For
all these reasons, I think that the movie Coco
is a surprisingly good movie. Even though it might seem only dedicated to a
young audience, it also reaches an older audience. Even if it is meant to
entertain the kids, this film still contains gothic elements that make it, in
my opinion, a gothic animation movie. If you’ve never watched it, I sincerely
suggest you do so.
P.S: I almost cried at the end of the movie. Another reason to take the time to watch it haha!
R&D Gothic Discoveries 