There’s a dark place in each of us - a place we bury deep within. A locked door at the end of a hallway; a box hidden under a loose floorboard. The best of us keep it well out of sight, but it’s there all the same, a place that calls to us in our darkest hours. If you linger too long outside the door, you’re drawn to its power. You press your ear to the door and hear the screams of pain and delight echo through the room. It’s now that you realise just how thin the door is between you and the darkness. It’s calling to you. You tear away from the door and run as fast as you can. But you’re never free of the things inside the room, inside the box. The key hangs around your neck and the dark place is inside you. You can only run from yourself, you can never be free. All your life you fight to keep the darkness at bay but the monsters inside are screaming for release and sometimes they win.
As a brief afterword, let me ask you how many horror movies are there about a locked room that one must never enter? I draw attention particularly to The Shining as it's one of my favourite movies (and book) but it's a common trope of the horror genre, and it dates back as far as we've been telling stories it seems, to Pandora's box in greek mythology. They are all examples of embodying the darkness of human nature. In the case of The Shining, the room represents King's alcoholism and all the demons that came with it. Take The Lord of the Rings, the ring can be interpreted as a metaphor for greed and power. I think the reality is that there's a darkness in everyone, some of us are just better at keeping it at bay.
As a brief afterword, let me ask you how many horror movies are there about a locked room that one must never enter? I draw attention particularly to The Shining as it's one of my favourite movies (and book) but it's a common trope of the horror genre, and it dates back as far as we've been telling stories it seems, to Pandora's box in greek mythology. They are all examples of embodying the darkness of human nature. In the case of The Shining, the room represents King's alcoholism and all the demons that came with it. Take The Lord of the Rings, the ring can be interpreted as a metaphor for greed and power. I think the reality is that there's a darkness in everyone, some of us are just better at keeping it at bay.