Why A Sense of Place is Usually Important in a Horror Film

New England is the best place in America to find ghosts and other things that go bump in the night. Everyone knows that!

#horror #film #movies #cinema #writing

Recently, I tackled a review of the 2019 reboot of Pet Sematary (1989). I noted that one of the things I missed in the new film is the strong sense of place that is present in the older version directed by Mary Lambert.

That version is set in rural Maine and features the sights and sounds of that region of the country pretty well. (In fact, it was filmed on location in Maine.) This is an advantage, at least with American viewers, because most Americans associate ghosts, witches, and other creepy goings-on with New England. That's because of the Salem Witch trials in the 17th century, obviously, as well as the fact that the region has produced many famous horror/Gothic writers (Nathaniel Hawthorne, Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson, H. P. Lovecraft, and of course, Stephen King, author of the Pet Sematary novel) who have set their stories there.

The new version of Pet Sematary is also set in rural Maine, but it’s so generic in its sets, situations and actors, it could be occurring anywhere.

That’s a big mistake in a movie about a Bad Place (or its close relative, a Bad Thing). The Bad Place can’t be generic and universal. Otherwise, it loses a lot of the fear factor inherent in the protagonists' not knowing that something bad is going to happen to them in the Bad Place.

Here’s how it works: if there were a cursed cemetery in every city or town that brings people back to life as murderous zombies, where’s the story? A new family might move in and their first or second question to their neighbors would be, “Guys, where do you keep your zombie cemetery that brings people back to life?” And then they would just know to stay away from it, like most sensible people would.

Or say that there was a people-eating haunted hotel in every city or town. Same thing. The people-eating haunted hotel wouldn’t get many customers as visitors would just avoid it, like they do with the one back home.

You Gotta be Special to Be Scary

No, the Bad Place or the Bad Thing has to be special and unique. The viewer must be convinced that it represents something that doesn’t happen everywhere or every day. The “new people” who ignorantly stumble into the Bad Place can’t be forewarned or forearmed against the true evil that lurks there.

Or, if they are forewarned, the characters must exhibit some defect that keeps them from understanding why they shouldn’t enter the Bad Place. For example, in The Haunting (1963) or The Legend of Hell House (1973), two groups of paranormal researchers know that they are entering a Bad Place, but their egos or their beliefs in “science”, cause them to proceed foolishly into it anyway. And they pay for that foolishness big time.

The Bad Place must also have a history, a back story that lets the audience know that the protagonists who enter it are in deep doo-doo. Audiences of horrors, thrillers or mysteries like knowing things that the main characters don’t know.

Unfortunately, the ‘19 version of Pet Sematary drops the whole back story of the evil zombie cemetery, except for one small anecdote told by a major character about his dog. It deletes a scary back story from the book and original film about a grieving father who buried his dead son there; that deletion makes the Bad Place even more generic. Generic Bad Places, without roots or histories, usually just aren’t all that scary.