#gothic media

[can-of-w0rmz]

The Herr Englishman 🕯🦇

[marzipanandminutiae]

concept: Gothic Literature Child Protective Services

because no, you cannot have a child raised by their parents' arch-nemesis. and no, a haunted Asylum of Horrors is not a suitable environment for them even if they're not a patient

marriage licenses are not to be issued to those of dubious age- you may be over the consent line in 1857, young madam, but you met this man two days ago and he's 20 years your senior, so very few people even in your own time would look kindly on the union. I don't care if "it's true love;" you have the life experience of a sea anemone and you are going right back to school while your swain returns to his Accursed Castle escorted by a few sharp-eyed werewolves

Lonely Psychic Children Play-Group meets every Wednesday and Friday regular (Adolescent Division is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday just for extra safety), so nobody has to forlornly call into the unknown for companionship. all kinds of riffraff out there

(Lonely Isolated Siblings Play-Group is Tuesdays and Thursdays)

there's a corps of carefully-vetted governesses-for-hire who are all aroace and quite unafraid of ghosts, so they won't be distracted from their charges by any Brooding Ruler of the Manor, living or otherwise. or any other phantoms hanging about

sex ed and gender-related classes are free and frequently offered, covering topics like Consent and You're Not Dying; You're Menstruating (Also It's Not Divine Judgment Upon You For The Sin of Eve) and Sometimes You Burn With Strange Lusts For The Pretty \Kitchenmaid And Vow Never To Wed A Man, And That's Fine and You Don't Have To Drink That Unholy Potion- Puberty Blockers Are Well-Researched And Safe; Here Is A Clinical Referral And Please Notify Us of Your Correct Name And Pronouns When Ready

and of course they have. Ways. of dealing with unfit parents...

[dolliedarko]

“𝐈𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.”

[mxmorbidmidnight]

The other day a friend asked me about the political ideals of goth and it has had me thinking and I have decided that goth in its nature is art.

It values the creation of art without societal constraints and bigoted ideals that restrict true creation. Exploring and learning to love what is considered macabre or morbid. As an offshoot of punk it is about escaping the restraint of filtering the aspects of oneself in order to not be disturbing to our society. It’s about throwing everything out to the world whether that be alternative music, poetry or prominent eyeliner.

Goth music and literature explores deep emotional expression through guttural and gory imageries, dark sound and human fear, its about acknowledging what frightens us in order to create and be in full trueness.

Bigotry is against the nature of goth as true art is created when all people can be a part of it as who they truly are. That is why I think a person cannot be racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexiest or any other kind of discriminatory and also be goth. It goes against what goth is built off and what it represents

Goth holds many of the same political views as punk, however I find by seeing the recurring themes and messages in goth media, literature and music it centres around identity and therefore art in all trueness, regardless of how society reacts or whether it is frightening. That and copious amounts of melodrama.

(Let me know your thoughts, these are just my observations).

[strawberryraviegutz]

Ok…I’m probably gonna get attacked/mocked for this but I need to vent for a min..

Has the gothic literature/gothic media community also been so…rude/pretentious?/gen

Because in a post of my short review of the Nosferatu 2024 film I said that I liked the movie and thought it was amazing, but that the whole thing with Orlok meeting Ellen as a child made me a bit iffy and I already have 2 anons come at me for it accuseimg me of hating the movie when it’s the exact opposite.

I’ve also seen ppl on Twitter, tumblr and other platforms basically make fun of ppl who didn’t like that Orlok met Ellen as a kid or straight up saying that what Orlok did wasn’t grooming. Yes Ellen did want Orlok when she called out to him due to loneliness but that doesn’t make it right, yes the movie isn’t about grooming but idc. She still was literally a child.

Which like yeah the whole dynamic between Ellen and Orlok is supposed to be horrible/terrifying, but if that’s the case then why are you getting mad at and making fun of ppl who’re horrified about it??

“Take your sensitive ass back to Hotel Transylvania”

Uh what’s wrong with Hotel Transylvania?? Why are you bringing up and shitting on a kids movie to prove a point???

Ppl have a right to feel uncomfortable about things especially if it involves grooming. And yes gothic literature/media does have some of this type of stuff in some stories and I know that there’s nuance to gothic media/literature but that doesn’t mean grooming is ok?? Also just because someone rightfully didn’t like the fact that Orlok and Ellen met when she was a child doesn’t mean that they’re pro purity culture??

I’ve also seen ppl making fun of others for not finding Orlok attractive and making fun of others who like conventionally attractive vampires like from twilight and or anime(even tho these are the same ppl who also simp for some of the characters from Interview with a vampire) not to mention others shitting on vampire media with romance plots and or different Dracula stories that involved romance too.

Plus conventionally attractive vampires within gothic media have been around for decades and maybe even centuries and they don’t “ruin the vampire genre”. ALL vampire archetypes are valid whether they be the “ugly” type or the conventionally attractive/humanoid type. Same goes for monster/nonhuman characters in general. I personally like a mix of both.

Ppl shouldn’t be made fun of, ridiculed, nor called “cowards” for having preferences in FICTIONAL non human creatures that don’t even exist.(This is also one of the reasons why I don’t rlly associate with the label monster fucker anymore cuz yall will go after anyone who doesn’t wanna fuck creatures like the xenomorph). Why can’t we just let ppl enjoy things???

It sucks cuz I’ve been obsessed with vampires ever since I was a little girl and while I did/do like pink cutesy stuff I also liked horror and gothic stuff as a kid too and I still do now. I want to get into more gothic literature I may like but after seeing all these mean/awful ppl in the community I’m kinda having second thoughts(I may get into more gothic media/literature either way but still).

Idk man I just wanted to voice my thoughts about a cool gothic vampire movie that had one of my favorite actors in it and wanted to see how the 2024 rendition of Orlok looked(which I liked as well btw tho didn’t know how to feel about the mustache. I know it’s supposed to be historically accurate and all but still) especially since an actor I rlly liked was playing as him. I’m tired…

[fashionschoolreject]

Costume Design: Gothic Protagonist

Now that my first ever series (The Secret History) is complete, I wanted to share an actual bit of costume design that I worked on recently. After seeing Nosferatu in theaters in the 26th, and already having a vetted interest in gothic literature and media - I was keen on designing something that fit that aesthetic.

(fine point markers, highlights and gel pens in black and red)

The goal was to design a piece that was luxurious and beautiful but also very restricting, like the person in it would be trapped. Very much inspired by the Victorian Era and costumes as seen in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Crimson Peak.

Move over Nosferatu - it’s Carmilla’s time next 🥀🩸

[timdales]

Hi!! Never Nosferatu-posted before but I’ve made a playlist filled with songs that I think match the unsettling energy of the film. i hope you enjoy!!

[basilsbestpainting]

Saltburn is like if Wuthering Heights fucked up relationship dynamics hate fucked with The Picture of Dorian Gray's internalized homophobia to get a modern Gothic tale that'll live rent free in my head forever

[positively--speculative]

I can see in a future season of IWTV Daniel interviewing Lestat about the domestic violence in s1e5 and this whole thing being set up where Lestat is telling his side and things are coming to that part. Daniel asks a couple of questions regarding that specific event and it plays out something like this:

'And you say you loved him?'

'I *do* love him.'

'And I suppose you're going to tell me that the events of that night didn't exactly play out the way Louis said.'

'Oh, no Louis was forthcoming about that. The events played out exactly as he said they did.'

And I see it happening this way because as I've said before, the gothic genre of storytelling is not meant to validate a desire for uncomplicated answers to questions as to what something as complex as *love* is. Love can be kind but it can also be cruel, and the gothic genre forces us to be confronted with that disturbing reality. A bad person like Lestat can still feel emotions like love and *still* be a bad person. The idea is *supposed* to be uncomfortable.

The desire some in the fandom have (especially white fans) for the abuse to be retconned shows a misunderstanding for the gothic genre. Gothic stories teach us that both of these things can be true: A person can be in love with someone and hurt that same person *intentionally.* The fact that Louis takes him back is a part of what makes the story disturbing. Their love story isn't supposed to be simple. A simple, uncomplicated story simply does not belong in this genre.

[merimeeyaa]

i watched nosferatu. tears at the end. i now need to consume everything nosferatu media to soothe myself. sigh.

also yearning for ellen and thomas. GOD.

[can-of-w0rmz]

Pov you repeatedly find cool sounding modern “gothic” media only to find out it’s really shit overly edgy 13-year-old’s-Wattpad-story level shit that romanticises suicide and mental illness “depression and self harm is quirky and everyone else with a mental illness is crazy” style instead of commentating on and delving into it and exploring the darkest elements of the human condition through romanticism without presenting them as a good thing or gatekeeping who has it worse:

[gothicseverance]

Film does not have the same Gothic potential as television, precisely because of the finite time period for a film. A film must end, while a television series has a seemingly infinite potential to continue telling the story and to continue multiplying meanings.

—Twin Peaks and the Television Gothic

[prettyboyprettyeyes]

Movies i wanna watch

the craft

sleepy hallow

sweeny todd

edward scissorhands

interview with the vampire

pans labyrinth

dead poets society

maid and nancy

bram stokers dracula

queen of the damned

the crow

the witches of eastwick

labyrinth

suburban gothic

the oxford murders

the virgin suicides

crimson peak

death becomes her

devils advocate

mary shelley’s frankenstein

the man in the iron mask

Irma Vep

[crypticarchivist]

Okay this is the only response I will give you because what the hell is this take.

1: firstly, the Nosferatu isn’t a metaphor for how she views her sexuality, it’s a metaphor for how Victorian society sees her sexuality and how it taught her to see her own sexuality.

secondly, the film wasn’t trying to say her sexuality was wrong? It’s a GOTHIC FILM. Look up the gothic genre sometimes and what it actually means. “A romantic idealization of death” is literally part of the gothic genre.

thirdly, the term “sexuality” does not refer solely to queer people. A person’s sexual nature, no matter where that compass is pointing or how, is their sexuality. At no point does the sentence “her sexuality was repressed in Victorian era london” mean it was repressed because she was homosexual. Her sexuality was repressed because it was literally any kind of sexuality AT ALL.

The movie makes no indication that she was a homosexual besides some minor subtext with her friend nor does it at any point try to make the point that “accepting your homosexuality means you die” wtf that is 100% you.

The Nosferatu first came to her when she CALLED HIM. And then it comes back later, threatening her marriage. It’s representative of something that caused her sexual awakening in the past that she’s ashamed of in the present because victorians didn’t want women to like sex AT ALL. If Victorian society didn’t constantly hammer in that she should be so ashamed of it repeatedly it wouldn’t have manifested in such a destructive manner later on.

2. firstly, the Plague is not mixing metaphors. At multiple points in the movie, it is explicitly stated that the Nosferatu is a PLAGUE BRINGER, and the plague would leave when he did. Count Orlok and the Plague are one and the same. He IS THE PLAGUE. He is a spirit of pestilence and darkness puppeting around his own corpse and spreading plague to act on the world around him. He is called a “demon” MULTIPLE TIMES.

secondly, this movie doesn’t use a “dirty foreigners bringing pestilence and destroying society metaphor.” It uses as “self important Englishmen ignoring the clear warnings from people who actually know what they’re talking about and bringing ruin to themselves and others MULTIPLE TIMES because the people warning them are either foreigners or women or people they don’t respect” metaphor.

“He leaves even though his wife says something horrible will happen if he does”

“He ignores the village full of people who actively hand crosses to him and warn him to not go to the castle under any circumstances”

“He walks over the obvious threshold FULL OF CROSSES TO WARD OFF ORLOK”

“Orlok explicitly says that he’s going to London because strictly scientific minded, prideful englishmen have no reckonning with how to deal with something like him, even if he’s primarily going for Ellen that is also the reason”

“The one doctor who might actually know what is happening is pushed out of the house and his advice is ignored which leads to Ellen’s friend and her friend’s children dying”

THAT is why people die. Because the victorian englishmen thought they knew everything and ignored literally every warning sign they came across. This is not dirty outsiders bringing diseases this is “englishman scoffing at being told to wash his hands by someone with a womb/accent” which feeds into Orlok being both metaphorically and literally a sickness that descends on the city that they allowed to fester and take root by not listening and responding in time.

And again, I didn’t say it was about non-het sexualities. There is some vague subtext about this with Ellen and her friend but that is still not what I mean by sexualities. Stop putting words in my mouth and saying I’m “implying” shit that’s your own interpretation not mine.

As for the rats killing people. The rats are Orlok. The sickness spreading through people’s lungs is Orlock. The madness of the guy who bites off a pigeon’s head is Orlock. His corpse, walking around and biting people, Is Orlock. All of that is Orlock. He’s a thing spread throughout the entire city and he gets into people and infects that with his influence. Orlok is not a foreigner spreading illness he is an illness that spreads around because the English ignored the advice of people who know how to deal with that illness and women who noticed the signs before the men.

Orlok is an illness taken back to London by an Englishman because he actively ignored all of the local Romani warning him to stay far away from the quarantine zone.

3: Reread everything from my original post that lead to your comments on the “old man metaphor”. You are actively flying past the point of the movie. It CAN be looked at as a groomer/victim allegory. It however is NOT a groomer/victim allegory. Not inherently and not as the sole true interpretation of the movie as it is made. This is Ellen having an internal conflict between two people she likes for two very different reasons and she’s terrified at the part of her that likes one of them.

Because one of the guys she likes is a fucking plague demon that is killing people, but is also at the same time telling her to seek her own empowerment and leave these victorian squares who don’t listen to her to kick it in the derelict mansion as a powerful undead corpse like him. While still also being a manipulative villain. Which I’m sure is the source of no end of internal conflict.

And that is all I have to say on that aspect of the movie. Failing to understand why Ellen would find Orlok appealing in some way is not a failure of the movie nor does it automatically turn it into a grooming allegory.

On removing the supernatural aspect: my point was that removing the vampire part and making it a story about an old man doesn’t change the movie and THAT’S A GOOD THING. Because the Vampire part is the gothic set dressing and the actual PLOT and THEMES of the movie do not strictly need it. The movie staying the same without having Orlok as a vampire and just as an old guy is GOOD. Because IT MEANS THE MOVIE HAS STRONG AND CONSISTENT THEMES.

“You’re a little frightened of what I think about coffee shop aus” stop trying to imply shit about me.

people really just walk into horror movies and expect them not to deal with uncomfortable things despite the genre being dedicated to discomfort.

i saw so many people complain that lisa frankenstein, a movie where one of the leads is famously a rotting corpse, was too gross for them. when i walked out of nosferatu, i heard people say that the nudity was uncalled for... in a vampire film. nudity? in MY gothic horror?! unheard of!

a LOT of people really need to accept that maybe some genres just aren't to their taste, idk. not every movie needs to be cookie-cutter clean. sexuality is a staple of gothic horror, if not the wider genre horror in General. you don't need to enjoy it, but it doesn't make these things uncalled for.

[horrible-horrible-hawk]

planning a frankenstein movie post for soon,, we finished it today and holy shit. amazing