Gothic Nights and Marquee Lights by Charlie Scaglione

"Song of Myself" Section 49 - Midsommar

cscagli1 — 2025-03-29 03:16:33 UTC

In Section 49 of “Song of Myself”, Whitman frames the relationship between life and death as a symbiotic one: death is both a part of life and a process from which new life springs forth. Lauded as a modern masterpiece of horror cinema, Ari Aster’s Midsommar centers around a group of college students who travel to Sweden for a summer solstice festival and soon find themselves under the grasp of an ancient cult’s strange rituals. The film, which subverts the traditional expectations of a horror piece by immersing its audience in a world of bright, saturated colors, manages to maintain a sense of unease throughout by juxtaposing images traditionally associated with life and goodness with disturbing depictions of death and depravity. One such image, for instance, features a violently dismembered corpse with brightly colored flowers growing out of its orifices. Whitman’s image of “white roses” and “leafy lips” sprouting from the “manure” of a corpse evokes a similar unnerving juxtaposition: one that speaks to the eternal, all-encompassing nature of the cycle of life and the moral ambiguity of its infinite implications. The film’s protagonist, a highly emotional young woman trapped in a toxic relationship and grieving the death of her family, is subject to screaming outbursts in true gothic fashion. She eventually achieves the rebirth she seeks through the ritualistic burning of her abusive boyfriend at the end of the film, once again emphasizing the many parallels between Whitman’s conception of the life-death continuum and Aster’s vision of the unsettling beauty of that very relationship.

"The Raven" - The Pale Blue Eye

cscagli1 — 2025-03-29 03:52:53 UTC

Widely disregarded by critics upon its release, Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye was, in my opinion, one of the most underrated films of 2022. Though the film makes no secret of its direct connection to The Raven (it even features a young Edgar Allen Poe amongst its supporting cast of characters), its riveting portrayal of a detective tasked with “solving” the brutal, ritualistic murders of the three young men who raped his daughter and drove her to suicide offers a unique perspective on the endless thematic dimensions of Poe’s morbid universe. The looming effects of the protagonist’s grief and the all-consuming effects of his rage bleed palpably into the dread-ridden tone of the film and ultimately plunge the audience into a gothic odyssey complete with some of the most familiar hallmarks of the genre: madness, black magic, and dark candle lit rooms abound.

WARNING!!!

cscagli1 — 2025-03-29 03:56:35 UTC

Both of these descriptions feature major spoilers for both of these films, as many of the thematic comparisons I wanted to draw hinge on events revealed later in each of the films.