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Dark: Chamber Films of the Horror Genre — Part 2
This is part two of a series on chamber horror. A link to the first part of the series is at the end of this piece.
Chamber theatre is a style of theatrical production in which there is typically little to no set (and any set pieces are moved by performers as part of the show), and the emphasis is on the text and character development rather than on theatrics and special effects. One of the best known examples is the chamber drama 12 Angry Men, in which all of the action occurs within a single room where jurors deliberate over a man’s fate. Naturally, this format evolved into film, where small-scale, low-budget films emphasized dialogue and character dynamics — usually, tension and conflict—over big and showy cinema.
Small-scale and low-budget? Sounds perfect for horror filmmakers! I jest, of course… there are some high-budget chamber horror films, as I’ll discuss below. Yet the chamber style empowers the horror genre to tap into its philosophical roots: what does it mean to be human? what does it mean to be good … or evil?
The following essay avoids spoilers.
There’s Someone Outside
Naturally, one of the easiest settings for chamber horror is a home. It can also be the most frightening, as it’s somewhere we all spend time, unlike an elevator or a cave, as featured in the films I talked about previously. It’s a place we consider safe, yet these films play on that assumption.
Of course, there are countless horror films set in a house, apartment, or trailer, but some films particularly highlight the tension between the interior and exterior or feature entrapment, whether self-inflicted or not. As well, chamber horror features low-budget scares, especially those wrought through clever editing rather than special effects or more, and features tense relationships and paranoia among the protagonists.
The Strangers
The Strangers (2008) is a highly choreographed series of knocks and bangs, as masked strangers play a game with broken-up couple James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler), gradually working their way into a farmhouse. This film keeps the tormentors frighteningly vague, giving them no identity beyond their masks and a few lines.
