The Staging of Domestic Interiors in Horror Films

In The Manhattan Transcripts, Bernard Tschumi once said, “To really appreciate architecture, you may even need to commit a murder…. a murder in the street differs to murder in the cathedral in the same way love in the street differs to street of love.” This statement claims that Architecture is not just a space or form, it includes movements and events that are staged to generate different readings. In a way, society has used the idea of the home, and staged it to what we belief as the perfect setting. When looking at the example of what home is, what happens when we manipulate our preconceived ideas of the bedroom, the kitchen, and dining room, and form it into a space that manifests our worst nightmares? Many classic horror films distort our preconceived ideas of domesticity through the staging of these spaces, and completely turn them upside down.