Contemporary horror takes its shape in many different elements throughout many novels, videogames, movies, or even series. Though many episodes and novels may differ, when one digs deeper into their underlying meaning, they can find the many theoretical similarities that lie amongst the two differing pieces. In this case, I am comparing an A. J. Finn novel titled The Woman in the Window to an episode of Black Mirror titled Shut Up and Dance, relating both of these to each other and the technical uses of contemporary horror in each. Both of these works share many theoretical concepts such as focusing on the anonymous self, separate approaches to the severity of technology, and how the audience is trapped in endless decision making.
A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window focuses the story on a woman who is diagnosed with agoraphobia, meaning she is too ill and too traumatized to step outside. The only way she can cope with her diagnosis is using her camera to take pictures in her house as well as the neighbors across the street. When one day she is spying on her neighbors through her professional camera, she witnesses an event that she regrets ever seeing: murder. Throughout the novel, you see the woman develop as a character, still relying her image on technology, and having her camera be the difference between life and death. By incorporating this eerie habit of constantly watching others from a camera, as well as the idea that the main character has a mental illness, almost makes the reader feel bad for what she has to be going through. Therefore, the audience can’t distinguish if she’s really doing the right or wrong thing. As Stephen Prince mentions in his book The Horror Film, dread and anxiety are the leading psychological pushes in horror films. For example, we dread the idea of phones and computers dying and have anxiety if this takes place. Thus, the moment that A. J. Finn introduces the main character having developed a disease prominent in the real world, the audience then understands her habit as many people today are attached to technology like she is and dread the thought of losing it. Just as she sees it as a release, the audience sees technology as a release too.
The Woman in the Window has the main character coping with her agoraphobia by connecting with an online community who are experiencing the same hardships that she is. While online, she exposes her true self and all of her secrets to an online friend named “GrannyLizzie” that ends up making the difference in her later life or death situation. This is important because it the idea of the anonymous self generates the sudden questioning if having online profiles is helping or hurting users. It’s essential to understand how A. J. Finn takes notice of the dangers of unknown identities online; though exposing information may not be killing us now, it may literally kill us in the long run. This form of psychological horror is gradual and takes time to develop in the novel, as the audience is slowly watching from an outsider’s perspective a daily activity becoming a danger to an ordinary person.
Black Mirror‘s Shut Up and Dance centers the storyline on a teenage boy who spends most of his time on his laptop. While one evening he is tempted by his loneliness, he then masturbates to children’s porn, all while his laptop is open and the camera is unknowingly on. He then gets a text, saying that someone has been watching him and threatens to send his information everywhere unless he finishes specific tasks. Throughout the episode, he realizes this anonymous controller has hacked many people’s secrets and is blackmailing them as well, just like the kid, with what these individuals have exposed through technology. In between tasks (after completed), the anonymous figure texts the main character, saying if what he did was the right thing and then moves on to the next task. An example of one task is robbing a bank and returning the money to another individual caught in the blackmailing. Another example was the first person to kill each other wins and moves on to the next task. Technology in this case is literally the difference between survival and death, having the “player” control either if they were to complete the task and move on forcibly or not and get exposed. The audience therefore feels empathy, as the kid encounters this an irregular temptation, gets the thing that is most feared to others done to him. People don’t know whether to feel uneasy about the tasks, root for him, or want him dead for the disturbing things he has done.
The dominant type of danger in this episode derives from online communities and the anonymous self, which work hand in hand to put in perspective how dangerous something can be online whether you are or aren’t alone. The difference between each separate task is the difference between survival, death, and digital death (meaning digitally, one could be exposed of who they truly are). It’s important to understand that the anonymous blackmailers are never found and always hidden, but they are the ones who do the most detrimental damage to the online community that is trapped in their endless cycle of tasks. This even further emphasizes that secrets are all too easy to access, even when you think everything may be secured and never found. The truth is, with technology, nothing can ever be truly hidden.
Both variations of fiction have distinctively different plots, but cross similar theoretical boundaries that would have been difficult to analyze if not comparing each to one another. To start, by further analyzing Pinedo’s characteristics of the postmodern horror genre in Recreational Terror: Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror, all of the theoretical concepts bind both of these pieces together. Pinedo argues that films produce a bounded experience of fear, the validity of rationality is thrown into question, and that there is a violent disruption to the everyday world. With these in mind, all of them come into play with both The Woman in the Window and Black Mirror’s Shut Up and Dance episode. Both take ordinary victims and bound in fear to everyday life situations that anyone could be doing, as well as the disruption of violence that initially starts off as subtle then grows into something massive.
Another main theoretical concept is that technology is the difference between survival and death. For The Woman in the Window, technology traps the main character in the situation of life and death in the final scene, as well as her accidentally seeing the murder from across the street from her technological device. Same idea for Shut Up and Dance, however Black Mirror approaches it with someone catching another person through technology, therefore manipulating him with life or death situations with different forms of technology. This is important because it shows the differentiates of the two plots while connecting similar approaches to death by the producer and author. In Norah Campbell and Mike Saren’s The Primitive, technology and horror: a posthuman biology touches on the connections of technology and fear in novels. They mention that humans are withheld on the idea of technology that it is becoming a part of our personality, rather than a physical item apart of our lives. People’s Dependence on technology highlights the importance of The Woman in the Window’s character encounters with social media, cameras, and ways of online communication.
When referring to the online communities and social medias, people become oblivious to the dangers they unknowingly experience in day to day activities. This focuses on the idea that both works have their main characters reveal too much information online and not respect that privacy might not be that private. The interesting part is that in The Woman in the Window, the woman deliberately reveals to another “familiar” figure about her life and private information. The difference is that in Shut Up and Dance, the kid was respecting the law of privacy, thinking he would be safe & no one would find out about his private information. This goes to prove that no matter how the distribution of information is done on technology, nothing will ever be hidden.
An important concept brought in both works but used through different approaches is the danger of the anonymous self. Through synthesizing both pieces, one of the most important pieces of information given to the audience is the fact that the main portion of danger is an unknown figure. Not only is it an unknown figure, but it’s more or less like a one-sided mirror. The anonymous person can see through the mirror while the woman and the kid can only see the reflection of themselves, not thinking twice that someone is watching their every move and how. It’s interesting to see similar techniques in that the audience is frightened of who could be watching them without their knowledge. Any information may not be killing us now but will eventually kill us in the long run. On page 134 of Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Analysis of Factors Related to Offending and Victimization by Sameer and Justin Patchin, the elements of “perceived anonymity online aid in freeing individuals from traditionally constraining pressures of society and behavior in a normal manor.” They then further elaborate how this anonymous self can “get away” with more unethical and textual violence than in person. This is important because it explains how the most violence done to anyone online is through an anonymous figure, therefore it’s easier for them to have their target not know who they are so they can continually repeat this violent cycle.
Incorporating the audience’s sympathy into the plots is a huge element for these contemporary horror pieces. The audience is confused to whether to feel sympathy for the wrong deed done and the repercussions from that or that these figures deserve what is occurring to them. Personally, this is one of the most important similarities when it comes to postmodern horror and the inclusion of how the audiences’ emotions should be. Both pieces include the main character having some sort of guilty pleasure that is caught by the so called “villain” (for The Woman in the Window, she takes picture of her neighbors because of agoraphobia, while in Shut Up and Dance the main character watches children’s porn because he is lonely and unsettled). It puts the audience in this position where they need to determine if the main character gets what they deserve or if they should allow sympathy towards them and every bad thing that is occurring.
While these works are fiction, it stresses the danger of realities. Though The Woman in the Window’s case is agoraphobia, an uncommon mental illness, revealing information in an online community is something that is very common, and the author incorporates this to stress the dangers of technology and social media profiles. Same distinction with Shut Up and Dance, where the kid is literally the puppet to these blackmailers through technology, as well as revealed himself through an ordinary mac computer. Both situations almost seem too real for a fiction novel or episode. Finally, the thought of the known being more fearful than the unknown is applicable for both works as well. In Black Mirror, knowing the main character watched child porn and what could happen is much more dreadful compared to what he doesn’t know about his next task. He will do anything to protect what he knows, even if it means encountering the unknown dangers. With The Woman in Window, she knew that every part of her information was revealed to an online community, as well as witnessed a murder rather than the unknown idea of what could happen to her.
The differentiating works have completely separate plot lines, but very similar theoretical concepts. From the anonymous self-generating more thought and the audience being incorporated just as much as the main character, the connections between this novel and episode couldn’t be closer. Online communities seem like a safe, environment, promoting the idea that there are anonymous people out there that are a release for oneself. Even with the privacy concept, nothing is ever kept a secret when it’s published online. Though they are very different works, the contemporary horror theoretical concepts shared are all relevant to today’s society of death in the digital age.
Works Cited
Campbell, Norah, and Mike Saren. “The Primitive, Technology and Horror: A Posthuman Biology.” Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization 10, no. 1 (2010): 152–76.
Hinduja, Sameer, and Justin W. Patchin. “Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Analysis of Factors Related to Offending and Victimization.” Deviant Behavior 29, no. 2 (January 22, 2008): 129–56.
Pinedo, Isabel. “Recreational Terror: Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film.” The Mutual Dependency of Force and Law in American Foreign Policy on JSTOR, 1 Apr. 1996, www.jstor.org/stable/20688091?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
Throughout the studying and photographing of Cave Hill Cemetery in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, I realized that the graves within this legendary cemetery were the closest thing for the dead to still remain alive for those who would come and visit. Cave Hill is known for the prestigious and life-like statues and memorials for those buried there. When visiting this national landmark in my hometown, I realized that capturing the photos of those almost “living” statues made the dead feel alive. Seeing the faces, pictures, and house-like structures for these graves made me think those buried were waiting to be let out and just needed someone to show others that they’re still alive. With this in mind, capturing the most eloquent statues and adding a life-like movement, such as glitches, to these photographs allows for the audience to feel as though the dead are moving their own picture that was captured of them. It adds a depth that the dead want to show the living that they’re very much alive, so to further this dimension I compiled all the glitched images into an Instagram page called “