Timeless Horror

Timeless Horror

     A common theme emerging, to an extent ironically, in the horror genre is that of timelessness. Horror films, and films in general, are often given the description of “timeless,” or “classic”. However, a couple of the more recent films we've screened take that description in a literal sense. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for example, portrays a family stuck in time. Their survival depended on a dying business; but, instead of searching for new ways to sustain themselves, they simply shifted their skills to another venue. The Thing touches on the theme of timelessness in another way: immortality. The alien has lived, as the characters speculate, for hundreds of thousands of years under the ice. Although neither film discusses the physical nature of time – or more specifically its relation to space – each inadvertently addresses it.

     The relationship between time and space is difficult for even experts in physics to understand. Basically – note my distinct lack of expert status – time and space are intertwined. Our world consists of, at least, 4 dimensions: 3 spatial and 1 temporal. The relationship between these dimensions is hard to create a picture of, but I've provided one of the more basic representations:

Essentially each cone represents all of the possible events leading up to and away from any single point in time. In this sense, only the present moment in time actually exists within space, while all other moments exist as probabilities – hence the decreasing and increasing number of possibilities represented by cones instead of, say, rectangles. 

      Both the family, from here on referred to as 'The Butchers,' and the alien are confined within both a time and a space for reasons they cannot control. Their situations, and therefor their evil, is a product of probability – the free market or atmosphere free-fall on an unfamiliar planet. Interestingly, the horror they present is then a product of the dissolution of time itself. The films comment on the cyclical nature of history by creating a cyclical timeline. This cyclical timeline is dictated then by a confined space – a Texas homestead or Antarctica. In the context of this conical representation of spacetime, each film forgoes the 'future light cone,' opting to instead condense it into the plane of space. This forces all future actions of the 'observer' – in this case either The Butchers or the alien – into the space they inhabit. Because any single cross-section of a cone is a circle, their future is then defined by a circular timeline existing within a specific space around the observer. In plain terms, they repeat themselves until either their space is forced to change or they no longer exist within time – they die. 

     Considering how many horror 'monsters' or 'villains' represent the fear of social constructions, the dissolution of time in these films lends a 'timelessness' to the constructions themselves. 'The human condition' is a phrase often thrown about when discussing horror representations. So when films highlight or reference the 'horror' inherent in 'the human condition' and simultaneously dissolve time in their own framing, they make the claim that said horror is itself timeless; that, as a result of the nature of humanity, it has, and will always, subsist. 

     If this projection of my interest in the physicality of time doesn't work for anyone or if I've missed any crucial aspects of the physics behind my claims, please inform me; I'm completely ready to be wrong. On a bit of a side note, I wanted to point out a few visual parallels I saw in The Thing with other media; specifically Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. I'll refrain from making any comments on the connections I saw simply because I'm unsure of what can be said outside of proving The Thing's influence, but here is a short clip that should seem familiar...