READING THE GOTHIC: Adapting Horror

Our fifth installment of Reading the Gothic is now available, in this episode we are going to be looking at the adaptability and popularity of the Gothic novel. From Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto to Stephen King’s Cell, from James Whale’s Frankenstein to Eli Roth’s The Hostel, the Gothic continues to permeate fiction and film today. Why though? Its not as if the giant helmet that crushed the poor Conrad could illicit more than laughter from today’s readers, and it’s hard to imagine an eighteenth century reader understanding the Zombie effects of a cell phone in Stephen King’s dark wasteland. So how does the Gothic continue to hold its deathlike grip on us? Simple, it adapts, finding what the modern reader finds most horrific and holds it up to the light for us to see.