Haunted Houses and what does it mean to be mentally ill?
Yesterday, friends and I went to a haunted house village. About an hour away from Montreal, we got there at 8 and walked around till 11pm. This year, halloween fell on the same day as Diwali. And I thought to myself, oh. this is an interesting way to interact with the veil.
I believe in spirits. Considering the several transformation rituals around the world at the end of October, I trust that the veil is indeed thinnest. Whether there are spirits beyond, or something else else entirely, it was interesting to see North America's version. Esp. since so much of North America is built on genocide and migration of christian settlers.
Some observations:
Haunted houses are for primal fear. A place where it is ok to be scared, to scream, to feel fear.
Many of the iconography and images are around Mental Illness. One particular house had someone saying 'Chapeau' in a sing song voice, over and over again. A reference to the mad hatter, presumably. + disability in general. Is loss of bodies / minds our biggest fear?
Where I've grown up around ritual and celebration, the somatic reactions to horror felt like a very specific kind of invitation.
The first time an actor walked up to me, I had no reaction. A freeze response.
The second, third, fourth times, I screamed easily.
By my sixth or seventh, I started to meow back at them. Probably because I talk to my cat, and meowing is not as energy intensive. But an acknowledgement.
And then, after by the ninth or tenth time, I was unfazed.
On one hand, there was a lack of experienced actors at this haunted village. On the other hand, it was interesting to see how fear, catharsism, consent worked in the space.
Are haunted houses the ultimate form of social practice? Culturally accepted performance art? In this paper, I will...
This could be a great paper tbh. I wonder if anyone's ever done a documentary on the making of haunted houses. I want to see someone think deeply about fear, about scaring. I want to watch someone design and prototype a haunting. yesyesyes mhmm.