Nightwind’s home

As I mentioned in the previous post, the gothic style has spread into most (if not all) arts. Architecture, literature, music … they’ve taken benefit from artists inspired by the dark side of life. The expansion has been so great that now the gothic style is considered to be a sub culture in its own right.

The modern times however have seen a new art taking over the main scene for the general public: the motion picture. Certain enough this area couldn’t escape untouched for too long so a number of movies have claimed to be a part of the gothic genre. Still, there’s a small question to be answered here … what makes a gothic movie?

I’ve heard quite a number of people making a not very small confusion between gothic and horror, although the differences aren’t small. Personally I am quite saddened by this confusion since there’s a lot more to the gothic that being gritty.

Let’s not forget that the gothic genre stems from romanticism, a mainstream and general genre who is defined (among other attributes) by extraordinary characters in extraordinary situations. Adding to this, the gothic makes the character a tragic one, setting the story in a dark environment, usually in a situation that a normal person would deem as hopeless. The struggle of the character is always a double one, interior and exterior, where the exterior one usually doesn’t lead to any change for the character (unless it’s the death of the character). In opposition to the horror genre, the gothic rarely employs frightening elements and in those cases, the frightening elements have a definite purpose in the story which is never related to actually scaring the audience.

To illustrate this, I will take a few examples of what I consider to be the best of this genre of movies.

• Edward Scissorhands: the tragedy of the character as well as the usually dark setting make this movie a classic of the genre. The tragedy brought on by having a physical and scary diformity makes Edward a part of a cast of characters that constitutes a main theme of the gothic genre, classicaly dubbed “The beauty and the beast” (the monster that falls in love with a common woman giving birth to a relationship between two people belonging to two different worlds, something that’s not meant for a happy ending).
• Batman: the dark knight himself benefits from two movies (”Batman” and “Batman returns”) which are extremely dark and gritty (something praised by some and spat at by others). Most characters portrayed there are tragic, starting from the Batman himself and continuing with his nemesis’ … The Joker (Jack Nicholson), The Penguin (Danny deVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pffeifer), all bearing a tragic secret which forms them and leads them on their path. The extremely dark setting of Gotham City benefits from the visuals of actul gothic architecture which adds a lot to the general feeling.
• The Crow: Brandon Lee’s last movie has beared many titles, “cursed” is one but gothic is the title most mentioned by its fans. The movie has it all … lost love, a raven, tragedy, the lonely struggle of one man against the world and an ending which only adds to the tragedy. The dark setting and the constant rain make a great atmosphere to what is generally known as one of the best gothic movies of all times.
• Sleepy Hollow: another movie with all the ingredients of the gothic subculture, starting from the tragic hero, to the gloomy atmosphere and mystical elements. It is also one of the movies which has helped stereotype Johnny Depp into the gothic hero archetype. Definitely one of the best of the genre.
• The Addams Family: a rarity (in fact, it’s one of a kind), as comedy does not become goth, yet this singular masterpiece makes a good laugh as well as portraying a few goth stereotypes and archetypes. A brilliant creation!
• Kindred - The Embraced: a gothic masterpiece, this dramatization of the concept behind “World of Darkness” and “Vampire: The Masquerade” shows the contemporary world through the eyes of the omnipresent vampires, who hind within our very society posing as humans, hiding behind the Masquerade.
• Dracula (1931): Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Dracula is a classic one and iconic for many goths, for it shows much better Bram Stoker’s character than the more modern ecranization.

There are also movies that have tried to look gothic but have missed some of all of the necessary ingredients. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of these, ironically enough since the novel which constitutes the basis of the movie can definitely be described as gothic. However, Hollywood has a long hand and even though the outcome is a classic movie, it was stripped of the essential ingredient which is the tragedy of the main character, which in the movie remains as nothing but a villain who ultimately meets his demise. Only the novel’s fans are able to identify Dracula’s drives and the reasoning behind them.

Another misplaced movie is 1983’s “The Hunger”. A horror creation by excellence, it is still misquoted as “gothic” even though it lacks many elements that could have brought it up. Aside that, it is much more horror than gothic and a poor horror creation nevertheless.

(more examples are soon to come)