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.