Lovely Lovecraft: The Complexity of "The Shunned House" Liam Mackay Byrd College

While we often cast aside shock value as a cheap method of producing a volatile reaction from readers and filmgoers, the fact remains that decay, disfigurement, and other elements of the grotesque are capable of establishing a theme and perhaps even aiding in the progression of a narrative when used appropriately. One could even argue the necessity of transgressive imagery to create potent allegorical figures within a given work. In film this is commonly portrayed within a subgenre called body horror. Despite the exploitative style of some movies such as Cannibal Holocaust or Hostel, others like The Fly articulate dense morality through bodily malformation. Often heralded as one of the horror genre’s most revered novelists, H.P. Lovecraft is a master orchestrator of these and other elements with his influence haunting much of today’s contemporary horror films and literature. Lovecraft’s novelette “The Shunned House” provides several effective means of asserting bleak themes of decay, neglect, and the ugliness of our own demons through the use of genuinely perturbing symbolism.

Early on Lovecraft makes it known that the titular house saw considerable death and trauma, with the narrator suggesting that “it was plainly unhealthy,...