Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman
Although the once-popular
concept of subliminal perception has been debunked, the use of
“hidden” images and text continues to be included in
advertisements, including movie posters, and, indeed, in motion
pictures, including horror movies. These posters, in which the word
“sex” is discernible, are cases in point.
(“S-e-x”
appears in the woman's hair. There is also the image of a man's head
among the palm trees at the bottom of the poster.)
(“S-e-x,”
printed in blood, appears on the woman's upper left shoulder.)
(“S-e-x”
formed by the branches of the trees, appears on to the right side of
the woman's right outer thigh. There's also a vague representation of
a female torso among the trees, bare breast in evidence.)
The idea is
that such “hidden” text and imagery, registered consciously, but
seemingly without notice, heightens the overall picture's erotic and
horrific effects.
Novelists and
short story writers also often use other “subliminal” ways to
effect such emotions, as we have seen in my previous posts,
“Background:
The Key to Interpreting Foreground,” and “'Heavy-Set':
Learning from the Masters,” “Learning
from the Masters: Ian Fleming, Part 2,” among others.
One way of
creating “subliminal” messages in horror fiction that we haven't
discussed as yet is description. For example, in the manner of a
fine, impressionistic painter, Stephen Crane describes a forest as if
it were a cathedral, the resulting imagery imbuing his novel, The
Red Badge of Courage,
with symbolic and thematic depth and richness that the story would
not possess otherwise:
At
length he reached a place where the high, arching boughs made a
chapel.
He softly pushed the green doors
aside and entered. Pine needles were a gentle brown carpet.
There was a religious
half light.
Near the
threshold he stopped, horror-stricken at the sight of a thing.
He was being
looked at by a dead man who was seated with his back against a
columnlike tree. The corpse was dressed in a uniform that had once
been blue, but was now faded to a melancholy shade of green. The
eyes, staring at the youth, had changed to the dull hue to be seen on
the side of a dead fish. The mouth was open. Its red had changed to
an appalling yellow. Over the gray skin of the face ran little ants.
One was trundling some sort of bundle along the upper lip.
The youth gave
a shriek as he confronted the thing. He was for moments turned to
stone before it. He remained staring into the liquid-looking eyes.
The dead man and the living man exchanged a long look. Then the youth
cautiously put one hand behind him and brought it against a tree.
Leaning upon this he retreated, step by step, with his face still
toward the thing. He feared that if he turned his back the body might
spring up and stealthily pursue him.
The branches,
pushing against him, threatened to throw him over upon it. His
unguided feet, too, caught aggravatingly in brambles; and with it all
he received a subtle suggestion to touch the corpse. As he thought of
his hand upon it he shuddered profoundly.
At last he
burst the bonds which had fastened him to the spot and fled,
unheeding the underbrush. He was pursued by the sight of black ants
swarming greedily upon the gray face and venturing horribly near to
the eyes.
After a time
he paused, and, breathless and panting, listened. He imagined some
strange voice would come from the dead throat and squawk after him in
horrible menaces.
The trees
about the portal of the chapel moved soughingly in a
soft wind. A sad silence was upon the little guarding edifice.
The
trees began softly to sing a hymn
of twilight. The sun sank until slanted bronze rays struck the
forest. There was a lull in the noises of insects as if they had
bowed
their beaks and were making a devotional
pause. There was silence
save for the chanted
chorus of the trees.
Then, upon
this stillness, there suddenly broke a tremendous clangor of sounds.
A crimson roar came from the distance.
The youth
stopped. He was transfixed by this terrific medley of all noises. It
was as if worlds were being rended. There was the ripping sound of
musketry and the breaking crash of the artillery.
His mind flew
in all directions. He conceived the two armies to be at each other
panther fashion. He listened for a time. Then he began to run in the
direction of the battle. He saw that it was an ironical thing for him
to be running thus toward that which he had been at such pains to
avoid. But he said, in substance, to himself that if the earth and
the moon were about to clash, many persons would doubtless plan to
get upon the roofs to witness the collision.
As he ran, he
became aware that the forest had stopped its music, as if at last
becoming capable of hearing the foreign sounds. The trees hushed and
stood motionless. Everything seemed to be listening to the crackle
and clatter and earthshaking thunder. The chorus peaked over
the still earth.
It suddenly
occurred to the youth that the fight in which he had been was, after
all, but perfunctory popping. In the hearing of this present din he
was doubtful if he had seen real battle scenes. This uproar explained
a celestial battle; it was tumbling hordes
a-struggle in the air.
The use of
another type of “subliminal,” involving a shift in the story's
point of view as it is read through the eyes of minor characters,
rather than from the perspective of the protagonist, can provide yet
another dimension to a story of horror, as we will see in a later
post.
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