The Tell Tale Heart 3 gr. A

 Gothic Movies

The Woman in Black

Some scenes are pretty scary, even if the whole movie is rather slow-paced, with low-key horror and a lot of suspenseful moments.

The on-screen apparations of the woman in black have an uncanny atmosphere ; there's not always music, and she appears mostly in the background. It contrasts violently with the infamous scene of the bedroom scare, which is based on sheer terror and that shocked a generation of British TV viewers.

Gothic elements in the movie feature the house itself (it's dark, labyrinthine, it's got a cemetry and ruins outside, it's surrounded with water). There's also a sense of isolation : a physical isolation when the character is on his own in the house, but also when he can't get anyone to help or even to talk in the village. The destruction of the house is reminiscent of FHU ; and the dreadful ending reminds us that Fate is not kind with protagonists of Gothic stories.

The sequence of the tavern highlights the importance of the secret ; everybody but the protagnist knows about this secret. Telling it might tempt Fate, so no one will tell anything to Arthur. It is reminiscent of the trope of the tavern in vampire fiction.

Later on, Arthur Kidd compares the ghostly apparition with recordings on a machine. Just like photography, cinema is oftentimes considered as a ghostly art, like a phantasmagoria that steals the souls (or ghosts) of people and traps them onto film.

 Relic

 Like the first movie, there's a slow build-up and then a rather violent and horrific climax, especially when Edna "loses it." Creepy elements abound : Edna eats pictures in the forest, or claims there are strangers downstairs. Sam goes down a staircase that is strangely too long, and mold and decay is everywhere, just like in FHU.

Gothic elements feature the house itself, even if it is first presented as a very ordinary place. There's a labyrinthine secret passage, obscurity kicks in the second part, and it feels like a reflection of that other house in the woods. Destruction can't help. There's also a family curse.