One of the most relevant spatial vehicles adopted by the gothic narrative, in an attempt to generate fear and dread, concerns the uncertainty of boundaries. The dichotomy between internal and external spaces, found in “the contrast between a secure and homely interior and the fearful invasion of alien presences”, has, in fact, been a key
defining feature of gothic literature (Vidler, 1994: 3).102 Horror cinema extends this
motif, epitomizing the ambiguous nature of boundaries, which are indeed uncanny in nature. They are heterotopias in the Foucauldian sense of the term. Used to demarcate two opposite worlds, such as inside/outside, private/public, familiar/unfamiliar, their primordial function can be suspended, neutralized and inverted (Foucault, 1967: 17).
To explore this uncertainty, my interest will focus now on the heterotopic boundaries found in the house. The house as a closed space can become permeable and uncertain. Any of its borders, doors, windows and walls can be crossed, allowing alien presences, both physical and immaterial, to invade and occupy the private space. Thus, subverting their primordial function of shelter, borders lose their closeness, causing the protagonists to perceive the house as both familiar and alien. What has been excluded invades the privacy of the house, breaking the boundaries between inside and outside. Doors and windows are the most significative boundaries within the house. Related to both the opening and the closing systems of heterotopias, they demarcate the threshold between two worlds, which can only be crossed though permission or special gesture. Heterotopias, in fact, are characterized by opening and closing systems “that both isolate and make them penetrable” (Ibid. 21). This makes them not freely accessible for everybody as public spaces, but dominated by rules which follow specific criteria.
Secret spaces, forbidden rooms and isolated sites are heterotopic spaces which mark the difference and the opposition between visible and invisible, known and unknown. Freda’s L’orribile segreto del Dottor Hitchcock (1962) offers a good example of
102 Authors such as E. T. A. Hoffmann (Der Sandmann, 1816), Victor Hugo (Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831), Thomas DeQuincey (The Confessions of an English Opium-eater, 1821) and Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of the
House of Usher, 1839) are typical of those who used the motif of the uncanny, exploiting the dichotomies of
this principle (sequence 00:47:22 – 00:50:53). Returning home alone after a visit to the opera, Cynthia explores the house and finds a locked room: a forbidden chamber to which access is denied. Driven by curiosity, the young lady crosses the threshold of this prohibited space, discovering a horrible secret kept hidden in the obscurity of the chamber (Figure 25). The sequence echoes Bluebeard’s castle and the fate of the young
bride who made the horrible discovery.103 Like the bride in Charles Perrault’s tale,
Cynthia is overcome with the desire to see what the forbidden room holds, and, despite the insistent warnings from her husband and Martha, the housekeeper, she goes inside. The boundaries between outside/inside, unknown/known are crossed and a space, a repository of terrible secrets, revealed: the mysterious room is a perverse heterotopia where Dr. Hitchcock narcotizes his previous wife Margaretha, in order to satisfy his necrophiliac proclivities.
Figure 25 – Cynthia (Barbara Steele) discovers the macabre secret in the forbidden room – Freda’s L'orribile segreto del dottor Hitchcock (1962)
Horror films are rich in forbidden rooms and secret passageways which hide dimensions parallel to the visible ones. These heterotopias allow a journey into a world that inverts our everyday sense of things, providing uncanny experiences.
Another heterotopic boundary which subverts its functions is the window. With its double property of transparency and reflection, the window is undoubtedly a heterotopic device of fear. The transparency of its glass is visually permeable. Losing
103 Bluebeard is one of eight tales by Charles Perrault, first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in
Histoiresous Contes du temps passé. Once again reminiscences of folktales are evident, confirming horror
its original function of a safe point of view, the window becomes a point of invasion and inversion of the look. Watching from outside the window, the killer invades the privacy of the sacred place, and, in doing so, he totally changes the nature of the house. This is what happens in a peculiar sequence (00:53:32 – 00:56:04) in Bava’s Operazione
paura (1966). Looking through the window, Melissa Graps (Figure 26) transforms the
house into a cage. Her gaze subverts the safe nature of the domestic space. Thus, no longer comfortable and secure, the house becomes a menacing trap from which it is impossible to escape. Melissa’s apparition represents an omen of death. The point-of- view shot allows the viewers to identify with the young victim, Nadine, who, terrified by the view of the ghost, commits suicide. The intensity of the frame is emphasized by the presence of a black bar (the structure of the window), which visually divides Melissa’s face.
Figure 26 – Looking through the window, Melissa Graps subverts the safe nature of
the
house – Bava’s Operazione paura (1966)Another deceptive quality of the window is its reflective property. Reflecting images, in fact, the glass window functions as a mirror, assuming the qualities of heterotopias as delineated by Foucault. As we put it before, the mirror is a peculiar object/space which only functions in relation to what it reflects. Altering the common sense of things, its function is therefore an uncanny one. In Inferno (1980), by pulling the lamp near to the window, Pat Hingle doesn’t see the dark outside, but instead enhances the view of herself (sequence 00:09:34 – 00:11:37). The reflection on the glass prevents the
girl from viewing what is beyond the window and, consequently, from avoiding possible attacks from outside (Figure 27).
Figure 27 – Pat Hingle is pulled out of a window by a mysterious figure
Suspiria (1977)
Thus, normally used by the inhabitants of a building to look outside, the window, with its double qualities of transparency and permeability, suspends, neutralizes and inverts its primordial functions of safety and protection, providing a source of uncanny experiences.
In his masterpiece The Poetics of Space (1958), the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard demonstrates how the sites in which we live are neither homogeneous nor empty. On the contrary, we live in heterogeneous spaces imbued with quantities. As Foucault notes, “we live inside a set of relations that delineates sites which are irreducible to one another and absolutely not super-imposable on one another” (Foucault, 1986: 23). It follows that our placement within a given physical space determines our position within a set of relations which enable us to identify the space as a specific social site. According to this principle, heterotopias are “active and interactive contexts within which social relations and social structures are produced and transformed” (Moore, 1966: x). They are not simple backdrops; on the contrary, they play an outstanding and active role in localized social practices.
Spaces can only be interpreted on the basis of the relations between objects, persons, environments and actions. These relations are not static. Conversely, they are
extremely dynamic and can be easily affected by changes over time. The transformation of spaces does not depend on the mutation of their components. Rather, it derives from the change in relations between all the elements present in the heterotopias. Consequently, the interplay between these agents reshapes the relations of this specific heterotopia. The change derived from this interaction causes further changes, which leads to an extension of spaces. To focus on this aspect of the heterotopia I will refer to a particular shot in Suspiria (1977). Suzy is alone in Madame Blanc’s office. Looking around in the oddity of the room, she notices a blue iris, which reminds her of Pat’s words about the secret of the coven. The girl turns the iris and a door opens. The interplay between Suzy and the flower on the wall totally changes the nature of that peculiar space. All the relations connected to that heterotopia are subverted, neutralized and reshaped. Madame Blanc’s office reveals a new dimension, a new world to be discovered.