Haunted Houses, Social Spaces and Surveilled Homes: Scary and Sinister Places in Spanish Cinema (1999-2012)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/Fotocinema.2021.v23i.12234Keywords:
Motion pictures, horror films, abject spaces, home, film space, fantastic filmsAbstract
This article focuses on the visual and narrative representation of abject spaces in contemporary Spanish cinema (1999-2012). Following Kristeva’s ideas (1982), the abject place is understood as locations where basic limits (the internal and the external, the private and the social, time continuity) are broken and the people who inhabit them are jeopardized or destroyed. This concept is explored through the qualitative analysis of nine film divided in three different narratives regarding dangerous or sinister places: haunted houses populated by ghosts, social spaces (orphanages and hospitals) in decay, and homes surveilled by external observers. The results show that, as whole, the Spanish films under discussion offer an image of the home characterized by insecurity, distrust and danger, reflecting somehow certain events that ha shaped the recent history of this country such as increasing urbanization, economic crisis, evictions or domestic violence
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