Molly Puckett - The Beauty of Analog Horror

 In my term paper, I am exploring three artifacts of analog horror as a way of understanding the liminal aesthetic. Below is an excerpt from my essay about what liminality is:


The word “liminal” comes from the Latin word “limen” meaning “threshold.” It represents the transition between two stages. These phases could be emotional, such as a right of passage or comming of age experience; physical, for example the transition between being awake and sleeping; or psychological, such as the transition between stages of development. In his book, The Ritual Process Structure and Antistructure, Victor Turner states that “Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial. As such, their ambiguous and indeterminate attributes are expressed by a rich variety of symbols in the many societies that ritualize social and cultural transitions” (Turner 95). As Turner explains, liminal spaces or “entities” are not contained within the laws or rules of our human world. They do not take a solid form, instead they ebb and flow with, or sometimes against, the social and cultural values and expectations. 

In modern times, liminality has become an aesthetic. “Liminal space aesthetics arise from the feelings of eeriness, nostalgia, and apprehension people describe when presented with such places outside of their designed context; most notably, their function as intermediary points between origin and destination.” (Liminal Space, 2024). The popularity of the aesthetic stems from the feelings that these kinds of images elicit. While this example of the liminal aesthetic pertains the most to architecture and places, the liminal aesthetic can also be conveyed through film, writing, and videography techniques.


Through exploring these things, I don’t know whether or not I have more questions than I began with. I have enjoyed learning about many different perspectives from many different scholars and people. The thing that I find fascinating about analog horror is the vast audience that it attracts. Views from all over the world have different opinions because of their culture, society, morals, and values. While this can make it difficult to find scholarly sources, I think that it has a strange sort of beauty that a continent form like analog horror can bring people together under the same morbid ideas.


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