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"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a famous short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It is a chilling tale told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator who insists on their sanity while describing the murder they have committed. The narrator becomes obsessed with the old man's vulture-like eye, claiming it drives them to madness.

A critical analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" can delve deeper into its themes, narrative style, and literary elements:

1. **Narrative Unreliability**: The story is narrated by an unnamed protagonist who insists on their sanity while exhibiting increasingly erratic behavior. This unreliable narrator adds a layer of complexity to the narrative, making readers question the truth of the events described.

2. **Psychological Horror**: Poe masterfully explores the depths of human psychology in this tale. The narrator's obsession with the old man's eye and the subsequent murder showcase the fragility of the human mind and the irrationality of their actions.

3. **Symbolism**: The vulture-like eye of the old man can be seen as a symbol of the narrator's own guilt and moral decay. The incessant beating of the heart after the murder can symbolize the relentless torment of a guilty conscience.

4. **Foreshadowing**: Poe uses foreshadowing to build tension throughout the story. The narrator's insistence that they are not mad and their acute sensitivity to sound foreshadow the events that unfold.

5. **Tone and Atmosphere**: Poe's use of vivid and darkly descriptive language creates a palpable atmosphere of dread and suspense. This contributes significantly to the story's overall impact.

6. **Narrative Structure**: "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative, allowing readers to directly experience the narrator's descent into madness. This intimate perspective intensifies the psychological horror.

7. **Moral Ambiguity**: The story raises questions about morality and the nature of evil. It invites readers to ponder the boundaries between sanity and insanity, right and wrong.

8. **Irony**: The story is filled with dramatic irony, as readers are aware of the narrator's madness while the character remains convinced of their sanity. This creates a sense of dramatic tension.

In essence, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a masterpiece of Gothic literature that explores the dark recesses of the human mind. Through its unreliable narrator, symbolism, and psychological horror elements, Poe crafts a tale that continues to captivate and unsettle readers, inviting them to contemplate the complexities of guilt, obsession, and the thin line between sanity and madness.

Friend Request (Verhoeven, 2016) and the “social media Gothic”.

Friend Request is a social media based horror, the basic narrative is a popular girl (Laura) gets stalked by another girl (Marina) in her class who has no friends, Marina commits suicide and Laura is haunted on social media by her, now deceased, stalker. Mark Kermode recently reviewed the film and expressed his opinion that the film started to fall apart when certain gothic aspects began to enter the film and to a certain extent, I agree. Rather than being a creepy stalker, after her death, Marina is uncovered as some kind of social media witch.

Friend Request is not innovative with it’s use of social media or mobile technological based horror. Unfriended (Gabriadze, 2014) and Chatroom (Nakata, 2010) are two relatively popular horrors that deal with the same issue but in a slightly different way. If we look at the late 2000s, there is a pattern of horror centred around mobile phones and a more modern technology, such as One Missed Call (Valette, 2008) and Pulse (Sonzero, 2006)- it is interesting to note how both of these films are remakes of much more successful Japanese horrors made in the early 2000s. However, Friend Request is more gothic centred and this can be seen through the use of colouring and liminal zones.

One way the Gothic theme can be seen in the film is through the character Marina’s psyche reflected through her drawings and artwork. Her art is mainly images of decaying things, particularly grand houses and images of Marina in her childhood. One of ways the film executes an foreboding atmosphere and a sense of dread is through Marina’s artwork. The biggest scares in the film come from scenes orientated around delving into her twisted gothic world and how the audience falls deeper into her psychosis.  The film’s use of liminal zones is another successful way that Verhoeven uses the gothic theme in his film. When Laura tries to find Marina’s body, her search leads her to various liminal zones which exist on the outside of the film’s setting. The film’s use of liminal zones conveys the antagonists sense of isolation but also foreshadows Laura’s inevitable loneliness at the end of the narrative. Many of the deaths in the film appear whilst the characters are in liminal zones such as Laura’s boyfriend and Gus.

Whilst the film’s use of the gothic theme is incredibly interesting and it is at times successful, as most of the horror within the film comes from the aspects of the gothic, it is not done effectively. At one point in the cinema, I found myself asking whether I was genuinely supposed to be interpellated into believing that such a thing as a ‘cyber witch’ would exist and if it did, would it be this unsuccessful in scaring me.