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Gothic Elements In Stonehearst Asylum

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Stonehearst Asylum is roughly based on a short story short story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" by Edgar Allan Poe. In this period piece the cinematography is employed to support the gothic theme of the era the film finds itself in. The Gothic theme is supported by four Gothic elements present in the film namely the isolated setting, entrapment/ imprisonment of the characters, the violence and insanity. According to the Oxford dictionary (2015:) can gothic be explained as belonging to or suggestive of the Dark Ages; significantly gloomy or horrifying. The gothic theme is significantly supported by the isolated setting. The film is set somewhere in the English wilderness a couple of days before Christmas in the winter of 1899 in an isolated medieval hospital. As Dr Edward Newgate arrives at the gate of the grounds the hospital is hidden in a cloud of fog just barely picking out. The weather is icy cold with snow as fare as the eye can see. In the hospital the candle light lends to the spooky atmosphere. The mysterious and terrifying setting adds drama and a gothic atmosphere to the film. …show more content…

The patients are confined to their quarters in the mental hospital or so it is ought to be. In the reality of the film the hospital has been overtaken by the lunatic patients and the staff thrown into cells in the dungeon. Thus the staff has been imprisoned and the mad patients are living freely in the mental institute being looked after by Dr Silas Lamb, a mental man there for murdering soldiers in his care during the Afghan War. The imprisonment of the real staff of Stonehearst evokes terror in the viewer and creates

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