FILM AND ARCHITECTURE return to 443/646 'How Uncanny'

THE HAUNTED AND THE UNHOMELY

 


In A Scanner Darkly (2006) we recognize the typical suburban house form that is familiar to us, but it appears differently in different parts of the film depending on the inhabitants state of mind. When we see Bob and his family the house is clean and homely. When he is dependent on Substance D he comments: ‘run down rubble filled house’, calls it a waste and says that something dark resides there, something big. The best example of the state of mind altering your surroundings is found with Freck. He’s not comfortable in his own home and is imagining bugs everywhere which are a great example of how infestations make a home unhomely. His experiences go as far as invading the sanctity of his bed. This is not a place where he is comfortable. His state of mind is haunting his home. The typical commercial architecture of Fred’s workplace are also unhomely in this film They present a repetitious and banal yet recognizable architecture familiar to us all. The big brother society and lack of trust is extremely uncanny and can be seen in the systematized architecture of Fred’s work.

Helen Tout previous next