{"id":71676,"date":"2014-05-22T16:10:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T20:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=71676"},"modified":"2014-05-22T16:22:38","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T20:22:38","slug":"gatto-nero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/22\/gatto-nero\/","title":{"rendered":"Gatto Nero"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

Corinne May Botz, The Roehrs House, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

Back in the day when video stores existed and I used to patronize them regularly, I depended particularly upon the judgment of a cinephile clerk named Will. One day, I went into his Brooklyn store and found someone different behind the counter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I explained to him what I was looking for: A creepy psychological thriller\/horror movie along the lines of Don\u2019t Look Now<\/em>, The Innocents<\/em>, the original Wicker Man<\/em>, Haunting of Hill House<\/em>, Burnt Offerings<\/em>, or Audrey Rose<\/em>. (I added that, despite its mediocrity, there were things I liked about Skeleton Key<\/em>.) In short, I tend to like a not-too-silly movie dealing with ghosts and the occult. I am especially drawn to those set in the 1970s, in which everyone is seemingly punished for the naivete of belonging to a happy family (just as a decade later one would be punished for being a teen girl). Catholic clergy is a plus. Hammer horror, serial killers, vampires, zombies, malevolent animals, and monsters of other kinds need not apply.<\/p>\n

We discussed this earnestly for some time and he determined that I must rent the 1981 version of The Black Cat<\/em>, loosely based on the eponymous Poe story. As he seemed to understand exactly what I was looking for, I was very excited and set aside a whole evening for viewing. <\/p>\n

Well, The Black Cat<\/em> was idiotic. Campy, goofy, and full of fake blood. I hope I\u2019m not spoiling anything for anyone when I tell you it\u2019s about an evil cat (black) who mauls people.<\/p>\n

It is a funny thing\u2014or maybe it\u2019s not\u2014but every time someone close to me has died, I have had an overpowering desire to watch ghost movies, read chilling stories, and, like a post-WWI Spiritualist, immerse myself in the uncanny. (Maybe it\u2019s the result of growing up without religion, and with movies and books.)<\/p>\n

Bereaved or otherwise, if your tastes run to the Gothic, I highly recommend Haunted Houses<\/em><\/a>, a collection of first-person accounts edited and illustrated by the photographer Corinne May Botz. There are a number of spine-tinglers, and the combination of subtly evocative visuals and frank narration is eerie and engaging.<\/p>\n

But there was one part that stood out especially for me, and not just because it concerns St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, near where I grew up (and site of an excellent annual rummage sale). The former minister testifies to the many instances of hauntings in the church, then says,<\/p>\n

\n

I don\u2019t know how you scientifically deal with that. I\u2019m sure there are ways of saying that it was a bad dream or a projection, but it happens and it\u2019s not surprising believing in the communion of saints as I do. I think, \u201cYeah so? What\u2019s so surprising about it?\u201d There\u2019s a fine line between the next world and this. It\u2019s all one reality and we can\u2019t divide it up, reality is reality. We know a little bit from Einstein about time, relativity and space, and that one interacts with the other. Time is a human construct anyway\u2026 who says there\u2019s a great division about past, present and future? Who says we can\u2019t visit those places in the so-called past? Now is all we have.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is certainly plenty to argue with here, if one is so inclined. And as he implies, a certain degree of suspension\u2014or faith\u2014is required. But however much of a rationalist or skeptic one might be, it\u2019s an interesting idea: that things are not uncanny unless they are breaking rules\u2014and those rules themselves are sometimes constructs.<\/p>\n

I forgot to return The Black Cat<\/em>, and then the video store closed, permanently, shortly thereafter. The result is that I still own the DVD, which I just ran across in a box of old stuff at the back of my closet. Obviously, I watched it immediately. And something about it was very comforting; maybe I have come to enjoy suspending disbelief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the day when video stores existed and I used to patronize them regularly, I depended particularly upon the judgment of a cinephile clerk named Will. One day, I went into his Brooklyn store and found someone different behind the counter.\u00a0 I explained to him what I was looking for: A creepy psychological thriller\/horror […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[14016,7883,9036,81,14015,14014],"class_list":["post-71676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-corinne-may-botz","tag-haunted-houses","tag-horror","tag-movies","tag-the-black-cat","tag-the-gothic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Comforts of Suspending Disbelief<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on Gothic tastes, \u201cThe Black Cat,\u201d and ghost stories.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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