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Horror and Travel – The Journey from Civilization to Wilderness

As a basic introduction to the course, we will look at how characters journey from

civilization to wilderness and then must either die or remain in the wilderness or attempt to

re-enter civilization.

When the story begins, usually a character starts off in Civilization (a city or urban

space). Civilization represents the power of the establishment. Civilization represents light/

law and order/rules that members of the establishment understand and follow. Civilization

represents safety and goodness.

Then the character decides to leave civilization and journey off towards the

wilderness. The character goes onto the Road (we will talk more about the Road later in the

course when we talk about liminal space). The Road represents an in-between space – a

place that is in-between the power of Civilization and the power of Wilderness.

Here, on the Road, characters often encounters warning signs of danger which they

ignore or do not understand because they are used to living in civilization where they have

power and safety. They believe in logic not in superstition so they do not understand the

warnings which are based on superstition or the supernatural. The character often

encounters members of the “other” – those who are connected to the power of the

supernatural or wilderness. The “other” here are often seen as local yokels (uneducated

peasants/lower class people) who give cryptic warnings of the danger ahead if the character

keeps going ahead. It is very important that warnings are given because then according to

the rules of horror, characters can be punished for transgressing (for crossing boundaries

they were warned not to cross). Motels and gas stations are often places of danger on the

Road as characters often encounter the local yokels (often known as harbingers – warnings

of danger). The local yokels are often part of the conspiracy meant to lure the city people

into the dangerous wilderness to be sacrificed to some supernatural forces/monsters.

Then, the civilized people who represent the power of the establishment cross the

boundary fully into the wilderness – they often go through tunnels or over bridges to do so.

Once the characters are in the wilderness, they are no longer fully connected to the power

of civilization which means they are in danger. In the wilderness, they encounter the

monster. They have several choices – they can die immediately or they can run away and try

to hide (not usually a successful long-term strategy for survival or they can stand and fight

and try to kill the monster. In order to kill the monster, the character must disconnect from

the logic and order of civilization and instead connect to passion and emotion. Thus, the

character “becomes” the monster in order to kill the monster. The first kill shows the

character becoming blooded (ritual of transformation through blood) – the character’s face

or body is often physically covered in blood to show the transformation of the character into

the monster. (Remember, just getting bloody by falling down a lot is not the act of getting

blooded – to become blooded involves one’s first kill to survive). Then the character goes

through the movie/story killing until all the monsters are dead or the character has made

his/her way back to the road or the boundary of the wilderness.

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At the exit to the wilderness, the character may wish to return back to civilization.

However, Civilization does not want monsters and the character became a monster through

his/her kills. Thus, characters must be cleansed of their sins/kills before they can return back

to civilization. Some characters are unable to return back to civilization. They have become

too monstrous/too insane/ too degenerated to return or they have died in the wilderness.

Sometimes, characters realize civilization is too corrupt for them or there is nothing left for

them in civilization so they choose to remain in the wilderness. However, if characters wish

to return to civilization, they must be cleansed. This cleansing often involves water –

rain/lakes or earth imagery or fire imagery. Air imagery is not often used for cleansing in

horror. So, a water image like rain falls onto the characters and washes away their blood so

they are now reborn and can re-enter civilization.

However, just because they are able to return to civilization does not mean they

have not been scarred or marked by their experiences. They may never be able to be fully

part of civilization or society again. They may have emotional or physical scarring or may

have gone insane. Sometimes, a character may be cleansed towards the end of the

movie/story by going through water etc. However, if a character lies or does something

immoral after their first cleansing and are not cleansed a second time, it is highly unlikely

they will be able to leave the wilderness and return to civilization.