GOTHIC HORROR
WHAT MAKES IT GOTHIC?
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Ill fated love or lust, any kind of romance will end in disaster and tragedy
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Characters with gross disfigurement..either of natural origin or synthetic occurrence
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The occult and the spiritual...think demons, living dead, apparitions
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REVENGE...there may not be a moral protagonist in the story
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The inclusion of the outcast...injustice and the rejection of an individual who does not conform to social expectation
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Sin...a specific focus on the iniquity of man and inherent evil
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Insanity or "madness"
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Violence, tends to be graphic and disturbing
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DEATH. Often an anachronistic depiction as well as an experience of characters in the story.
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Gloomy and dismal settings...the location should be as dark as the plot
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Sleepy Hollow
(1999 Film)
Constable Ichabod Crane finds himself in a convoluted mystery when he is assigned to the small town of “Sleepy Hollow” where a haunted figure is decapitating residents and stealing their lopped off heads. Ichabod must balance science, folklore, and his heart as he strives to bring about justice.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde
(Book by Robert Louis Stevenson)
A science experiment gone wrong. In an attempt to mask his own lusts and evil desires, Dr. Jekyll generates a serum to separate the darkness from himself. Jekyll’s serum is successful, but instead of total separation, his evil isolates and becomes a persona of its own that inhabit his body.
Pride and Predjudice and Zombies
(2016 Film)
Class rivalries, family drama, romance, and…ZOMBIES? In this fatalistic version of Jane Austen’s classic love story, independent Elizabeth and introverted Darcy vigorously fight both their attractions to each other and the hordes of zombies that seek to devour their brains.
The Umbrella Academy
(2019 Television Show)
Eight siblings are forced to reunite after the mysterious death of their father. Cursed with powers that expand beyond the bounds of normalcy they are earth’s last line of defense against the apocalypse. Subverts the genre by utilizing Gothic horror in a superhero origin story.
Stephen King's The Storm of the Century
(1999 Television Mini-series)
A stranger enters a small Maine town and brutally murders a resident with no explanation other than "Give me what I want, and I'll go away." After his arrival, a string of brutal suicides occur, leading the residents to believe that the stranger may be something more than human.
The Phantom of the Opera
(Musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber)
Deep within the caverns beneath the opera house, the masked Phantom hides his disfigured face and tortured past from young Soprano Christine Daee as he tries to win her love and affection. When she does not succumb to his seduction he responds with vengeance.
9
(2009 Film)
Humanity has been wiped out from existence by the machines. The only life that remains on earth are the nine “Stitchpunks”, fragments of one man’s soul that have been artificially adhered to sackcloth dolls. The nine struggle to survive the apocalypse and find a way to restore Earth.
The Raven
(Poem by Edgar Allen Poe)
Poe explores the trauma of grief in his brilliantly articulated poem, as a man mourns the death of his lover and slowly slips into madness from his sorrow. Dark imagery, chilling allusion, and specific rhythm generate suspense and terror in the reader.
The Prestiege
(2006 Film)
Two rival magicians engage in a battle of wits to contrive acts that out do the other. When sleight of hand and illusion no longer satisfy the audience’s appetite for entertainment, they turn to darker methods to bring about the end they desire. But at what cost?
The Yellow Wallpaper
(Short Story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
A young woman is prescribed to be confined to a room as a cure for her mental illness. She journals her experience and isolation. Once obsessed with the decoration on the walls, grotesque peeling wallpaper, she claims to see a woman hidden in the paper and discovers the identity of the figure.
TALES FROM THE CRYPT
Gothic horror is a subgenre fraught with monsters, madness, melancholy motifs, and macabre settings. Characters tend to be outcasts, disfigured, insane, or hell bent on revenge. A properly composed gothic horror story should disgust and terrify the audience. Pioneered by literary giants such as Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Gaston Leroux the genre has evolved to be included in a variety of formats including film, television, and theatre. Epitomes of this genre that perfectly align with the gothic horror stereotype are “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Sleepy Hollow”. In contrast, “The Umbrella Academy” conforms to the conventions of gothic horror, but subverts the genre as a whole
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Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical masterpiece, “The Phantom of the Opera” brings Gaston Leroux’s classic novel to an in-person media in a dynamic performance. The mode is a presentation that engages both visual and audible spectrums to transport the audience to a haunted French opera house in the late 1800s. The show’s sophisticated and lofty language as well as mature themes such as sexual innuendo, violence, and crass language make it suitable for a teenage and adult audience. Tickets are expensive which limit the viewing to individuals with expendable income. While the thematic elements of the story may be familiar to an audience, the live performance establishes it as a unique work. In this setting, the audience is directly involved with the production and is not confined to a screen or the bounds of their own imagination.
Every aspect of the musical is ornate and magnificent. The costumes are bold and gorgeous, reminiscent of the flamboyant attire of 19th century performers. The costume designer uses color to establish contrast so that the audience can easily identify each character. Christine primarily wears white and light pinks as a symbol of her innocence and purity. The masked Phantom is shrouded in dark hues and vibrant red which depicts his threatening demeanor. His prosthetics are exaggerated to make his face grotesque and skeletal which are a central component of his character. The sets are intense and exquisite, drowning the audience in detail and establishing the mood for the story. The audience is transported to the Phantom’s secret lair, the labyrinth of the opera house, and a dark graveyard. The set is not limited to the stage. Performers walk directly through the audience and the chandelier above their head is rigged to simulate an explosion that threatens to send it plummeting down on them. The lighting is used to direct specific attention to props and actors as well as to explore the emotion of the moments by dousing the stage in a specific hue. It is an immersive experience that is unique to live theatre.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber employs pathos by ensnaring the emotions of his audience through characterization. Since it is a musical, Webber uses the emotional and metaphor filled lyrics to reveal the inner-most thoughts of the characters. The musical is considered a “rock opera” due to its convergence of classical operatic style and rock and roll melodies. This stylistic choice makes the music gothic in nature because it is eerie, angsty, and filled with dark intonation. Soprano Christine Daee’s lofty melodies are in contrast to the Phantom’s dark ballads which is an expression of their character attributes. Their duets are chilling and filled with innate moral and sexual tension as Christine strives to discover the identity of the seductive Phantom while her own sanity slips. The live show includes incredibly difficult vocal compositions and emotional performances by skilled actors to invoke empathy in the audience.
The 1999 film adaption of Washington Irving’s “Sleepy Hollow” follows constable Ichabod Crane as he struggles to solve a string of decapitations committed by a ghost from local folklore. As a movie the mode is visual and audio with a digital media. The film is appropriately rated R for its graphic violence and a scene of sexual content. This rating directs this film to be originally viewed by a mature audience consisting primarily of those over the age of 17, but now it is accessible on most online media platforms. Tim Burton’s cinematic genius makes this an engaging and fascinating film that perfectly depicts the genre of gothic horror.
The film is visually dark, almost entirely lacking saturation. The hue of the scenes is blue which gives it a cold and pale atmosphere. The prominence of the black and white colors allows the copious amounts of crimson blood to stand in contrast. Each character looks like a corpse due to the lack of warm tint in their skin and hair. The costumes of the characters are exceedingly “goth” with black velvet, leather, lace, and buttons as reoccurring garb. The setting of Sleepy Hollow is bleak and rugged. Featuring gnarled woods and cobbled buildings, nothing about the small town invokes any feelings of safety or comfort. Burton firmly establishes the genre of his film within the first few minutes of the film strictly through the use of visuals.
The film makes aggressive use of the R rating and includes brutal, excessive gore. There are close ups of each victim and depictions of an autopsy and the exhumation of corpses. The means of execution are morbidly creative such as an iron maiden and decapitation by a sword. There is no attempt to soften the blow of each death or protect the eyes of the audience in order to maintain some sense of propriety. The effect is a nauseating, carnage extravaganza that proclaims the vivid lethality of the horseman. The blood and severed body parts are so prevalent that it shocks the viewer to the point where it is nearly impossible to comprehend all the violence. This constant depiction of suffering demands response from the audience which progresses Burton’s appeal of pathos to purport intolerance of injustice.
The characterization of the protagonist makes the film distinct in the gothic horror genre. The protagonist, Ichabod Crane is entirely incompetent and seemingly blameless. Ichabod does not tolerate violence or blood well which makes his position as a constable ironic since the investigation of crime is his occupation. In times of heightened stress, he responds by losing consciousness, which renders him utterly useless. Additionally, his motives and intentions are pure and moral. He wants to improve the lives of those around him and bring the perpetrator to justice. Johnny Depp’s masterful portrayal of his squeamishness and innocence makes the character extremely relatable to the audience.
In 2019, Netflix released a ten-episode television show, “The Umbrella Academy”, based on Gerhard Way’s comic book novels, which follows the plight of eight supernaturally gifted siblings as they struggle to prevent the apocalypse. The mode of the production is audio and visual with a strictly visual media. Although the show has a recommended TV-14 rating it is accessible by anyone who has a Netflix subscription. “The Umbrella Academy” subverts the genre by using the conventions of gothic horror to tell a modern superhero narrative.
The violence and supernatural elements of the television show make it a specimen of gothic horror. Each of the eight Hargreeves siblings is endowed with incredible power that was present from their birth. Necromancy, telekinesis, reality manipulation, and teleportation are just some examples of their manifestations of unnatural capacity. The show does not attempt to explain the originations of these powers, but shrouds it in eerie mystery ”. The narrative pursues the pessimistic view of human nature that is present in gothic horror through the violent conflicts that arise when they use their “gifts”. Instead of using these aberrations from normalcy for good and the benefit of others, their powers always result in violence and extreme negative repercussions. The most extreme example of this occurrence is their bringing about of the end of the world. This composition’s subversion of the genre occurs in how the inhabitants of the fictional universe receive these superpowered individuals. Rather than ostracization and rejection, the Hargreeve siblings are hailed as saviors regardless of their lack of morality. They surge to instant celebrity status as the superhero team “The Umbrella Academy”. They are not forced to hide their abnormalities, but are encouraged to exploit and capitalize them.
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The characters are forced to be ambassadors of brutal justice from a young age as the world’s first “superhero team”, “The Umbrella Academy”. The composition employs pathos through characterization. The interactions between the characters are the most fascinating portion of the entire show. Family drama, slow burn romance, and quests for revenge and identity provide the body of the plot and consume the audience’s attention. Each of the seven main characters is distinct and diverse so that the audience will connect deeply with at least one of them. Their dialogue is playful and filled with banter. Though the content is serious, the show embraces satire to appeal to a generation that has embraced a nihilistic view of tragedy.
Gothic horror allows for profound explorations of the iniquity of man and extraordinary cynicism about humanity. The tales drip with philosophical messages and engages the rhetorical device of pathos. The audience is forced into introspection as they follow the narratives and are immersed in the vivid imagery and complex plots. Gothic horror is incorporated in many pieces of fiction and brilliantly adapts to the times as culture evolves and brings new fears to life.