Gothic Horror

Gothic horror is by far my favorite type of horror; it’s in essence the beginning of horror. Where there’s nothing you can do to stop it, its dark, scary, and an unstoppable force. I ended up watching Alien this week and let me start by saying this, wow. I’ve watched Alien in the past and absolutely loved it, but this watch through I really wanted to pay attention to the small details of story telling. This story is so depressing; it was made just after the Vietnam War ended. The story has lots of parallels with how the war ended for us, which makes the story feel real and relatable. The xenomorph I feel is really relatable to the Vietnam War, were its something we are forced to reckon with and can’t run away from it. No matter how much we don’t want to deal with it or want to face it we must. Alien also was a really big fantasy movie at that time; Ridley Scott created this whole world that has been pushed to the limit (maybe even too far in my opinion, for example Alien 3).  Alien fits a lot of the understood requirements of a gothic film, such as a threating mystery that and a ancestral curse. Alien seems to have a type of curse to it and a definite mystery. The scientist who bring the alien on board are completely unaware of the ultimate danger they have brought to their people and basically are killing them. 

Edgar Allen Poe is another great example of Gothic horror. He really pushes the idea of an ancestral curse and definite mystery. A Tell Tale Heart is so scary, the way he describes the heart in the floor is so creepy. It’s all in his head, but he describes it like the heart is real and is slowly killing him. I think the way Poe puts us in his shoes and basically describes the insanity he is going through.  Poe wants us to feel the guilt and fear that he has and I think that he is very successful in making the reader feel this. Gothic Horror is exactly this and Poe is the king of true fear.