Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman
During the 1800s and the
1900s, as railroads developed enough to provide dependable,
relatively inexpensive travel for many, suburbs
began to appear. In England, members of the nascent middle class,
having improved their fortunes through industrialization, purchased
homes in the environs of densely populated, polluted cities in which
the factories and other industries that had, ironically, made them
rich were located. The development of subways and bus routes
accelerated this exodus from urban to suburban communities. Following
World War I, such suburban developments as those at Kingsbury Garden
Village, Wembley Park, Cecil Park and Grange Estate, and the Cedars
Estate were built by the Metropolitan Railway Country Estates
Limited, located in London.
In the United States,
suburbs appeared in Boston and New York. In the latter state, on Long
Island, the planned community Levittown
was constructed after the end of World War II, becoming a model for
other such developments. Its five styles of the ranch house were
replicated thousands of times. By the twentieth century, there were
suburbs in most of America's big cites. Their existence encouraged
the construction of shopping malls, the development of roadways, and
the spread of chain stores.
Although, in time,
commentators began to criticize these planned communities for their
architectural conformity and the “bland” lifestyles they
promoted, many residents of suburbia found their environments to be
pleasant, serene, safe, and comfortable. These qualities, of course,
make suburbs ideal settings for horror, for, in novels and movies in
this genre, terror and disgust often follow a period of calm or happy
existence which, until the horror begins, was the standard, everyday
ambiance and milieu.
In
Ginger Snaps
(2001), horror comes to Bailey Downs, a suburbs in Alberta, Canada,
in the form of a beast that's more lupine than canine. Attracted by
the scent of redhead Ginger Fitzgerald's menstrual blood, the animal
attacks, but it's beaten back by Ginger's brunette sister, Brigitte,
before being struck by a van as it crosses a road through the forest
upon resuming its pursuit of the sisters.
Although she's been scratched by the predator, Ginger decides not to seek medical attention, since her wounds close quickly. Ginger's subsequent transformations, both physical and mental, make it clear that the animal that had clawed her was a werewolf, which is what Ginger herself has become.
As might be expected, violence, sex, and death ensue. In the process, Bailey Downs is changed forever, its residents suffering tremendously at the jaws and paws of Ginger, who pummels Trina Sinclair, the school bully; kills a neighbor's dog; turns boyfriend Jason McCardy into a werewolf by having unprotected sex with him; murders her high school's guidance counselor and janitor; and breaks drug dealer Sam Miller's arm before killing him. The suburbs proves to be anything but the sanctuary it seems at the movie's start.
Although she's been scratched by the predator, Ginger decides not to seek medical attention, since her wounds close quickly. Ginger's subsequent transformations, both physical and mental, make it clear that the animal that had clawed her was a werewolf, which is what Ginger herself has become.
As might be expected, violence, sex, and death ensue. In the process, Bailey Downs is changed forever, its residents suffering tremendously at the jaws and paws of Ginger, who pummels Trina Sinclair, the school bully; kills a neighbor's dog; turns boyfriend Jason McCardy into a werewolf by having unprotected sex with him; murders her high school's guidance counselor and janitor; and breaks drug dealer Sam Miller's arm before killing him. The suburbs proves to be anything but the sanctuary it seems at the movie's start.
It
might seem
as though a new house in the suburbs would be a safe place, but
appearances, of course, can be deceiving. As Travis
Newton observes in an article on his blog, “The wonderful thing
about living in a new suburban house is that there are no ghosts in
it. Right? Wrong. Paranormal Activity
took the security and safety of a new, modern home and tossed it
right out the window.”
As Newton further points out, one of the scariest things about Paranormal Activity (2007) is the fact that the paranormal phenomena occur not “in some old castle or space station or haunted forest. It takes place in the kind of house your neighbors could live in. The kind of house that maybe you live in.”
As Newton further points out, one of the scariest things about Paranormal Activity (2007) is the fact that the paranormal phenomena occur not “in some old castle or space station or haunted forest. It takes place in the kind of house your neighbors could live in. The kind of house that maybe you live in.”
Katie
Featherstone and Micah Sloat have just bought a new home in San
Diego, California. Afraid of the demon that has been harassing her
for as long as she can remember, Katie prompts Micah to set up a
camera to record any paranormal activity that may occur in the house
while they're asleep or away from home.
The camera does record some disturbing incidents: flickering lights, doors moving by themselves, a planchette moving under its own power over a Ouija board, and strange creaking sounds. When the activity intensifies, the couple asks Dr. Fredrichs, a demonologist, to investigate, but, too, afraid to remain in the house, he deserts them.
The demon bites Katie, transforming her into a fiend, and the camera records her, in her demonic aspect, grinning as she crawls toward Micah's body after he's been hurled across the bedroom. At the end of the film, on-screen text informs the audience that police discovered Micah's corpse, but Katie is nowhere to be found.
The camera does record some disturbing incidents: flickering lights, doors moving by themselves, a planchette moving under its own power over a Ouija board, and strange creaking sounds. When the activity intensifies, the couple asks Dr. Fredrichs, a demonologist, to investigate, but, too, afraid to remain in the house, he deserts them.
The demon bites Katie, transforming her into a fiend, and the camera records her, in her demonic aspect, grinning as she crawls toward Micah's body after he's been hurled across the bedroom. At the end of the film, on-screen text informs the audience that police discovered Micah's corpse, but Katie is nowhere to be found.
Some
time ago in a suburban community, Nancy Thompson and her friends
battled a nightmarish dream figure, Freddy Krueger, who attacked them
in their sleep. His motive for doing so—and his supernatural
nature—are explained on the Fandom
site devoted to the movie franchise, A Nightmare on Elm
Street, of which he is the central antagonist:
A
family man on the surface, Krueger was actually the serial killer
known as the “Springwood Slasher.” When he was caught and
subsequently released on a technicality, the parents of his victims
chased him to a shack out back of the power plant he once worked at
and burned him alive. Rather than succumb to death, Krueger was
offered the chance to continue his killing spree after death,
becoming a Dream Demon that could enter his victims' dreams and kill
them in the dream world, which would thus cause their death in the
physical world and absorb their souls afterwards.
The
murders he commits take place in two worlds: that of the dream in
which he appears and the actual, “physical world.” The Fandom
site does a good job of comparing and contrasting the two as it
summarizes the details of the respective incidents. Here, for
example, is the account of the death—or deaths—of
Tina Gray, which occurs in the franchise's original, 1984 film:
Dream World description
|
Physical World description
|
Tina awakens to the sound of a stone, tapping on her window, breaking the contact area. Puzzled, Tina goes outside to hear Freddy Krueger calling her name. She walks out further. Just then, a trash can lid rolls in front of her making a startling noise. Then, Freddy's shadow appears around the corner, Freddy emerges. Tina says "Please God" and Freddy moves his claws threateningly saying "This... is God." He chases her down the alley. Tina turns back, he is gone. Just then he jumps from behind a tree and makes her watch as her cuts off his finger and it squirts green ooze. She runs, he chases her up the stairs, knocking her off and rolling around on the floor with her. She grabs his face which proceeds to tear off, he laughs. | Tina rolls all over her bed, her chest is slit with his claws, she floats up to the ceiling after being spun around in mid-air. Cutting continues until her bloody, lifeless body falls to the floor. |
As
a demon, Freddy is able to shift shape, and he has adopted a variety
of forms, some human, others inanimate, including those of a hall
guard; a telephone; a snake; a marionette; television talk show host
Dick Cavett; a television set; a nurse named Marcie; Nancy Thompson's
father, Donald; a model inside a water bed; a motorcycle; a video
game character; a medical doctor, Christine Heffner; camp counselors;
Jason Vorhees's mother, Pamela; and a caterpillar. Anything can
happen in a dream, right?
The
suburbs are no safer in Elm Street
than they are in Ginger Snaps,
Paranormal Activity,
or several other horror movies with such settings. The franchise
plays upon parents' concerns for their children's welfare, crimes
against minors, physical and emotional abuse, psychological trauma,
object permanence, the sometimes-fine line between fantasy and
reality, the potential dangers of isolation and of in
loco parentis,
the effects of vigilantism and vengeance, and other unsettling
themes. Apparently, if we are to believe horror movie directors,
suburban life is far more dangerous and lawless than many might have
imagined.
But
it's not just moviemakers who suggest the suburbs may be the deaths
of suburbanites. A number of novelists have also implied that such
communities, in themselves neither urban nor rural, might well be the
deaths of us: Stephen King in The
Regulators,
Bentley Little in The Association, and
Ira Levin in The Stepford Wives
venture forth into the forbidden lanes and cul-de-sacs of American
suburbia, each offering a cautionary tale about the supposedly good
life that's lived there.
Several of my own Sinister Stories (available at Amazon Books) also contain tales of terror associated with the suburbs.