Massacre At The Mall
- Cell Phones In School - always doing something and are going somewhere, and may need to call a parent while at school....
Submitted by RichRomero on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: History Other
- Words: 500
- Pages: 2
- Views: 11
- Popularity Rank: 15878
Massacre At The Mall
When one thinks of typical settings for a horror flick, certain structures come immediately to mind: the gothic castles of Europe; spooky old Victorian houses; cursed, decaying churches; funeral homes and mausoleums; shopping malls.
Wait, what was that last one again? Shopping malls? Though it may not have quite the lineage of some of the other places on that list, over the past 25 years the shopping mall has nonetheless proved to be a popular locale for horrific happenings; particularly in suburban North America, where one is not likely to find too many haunted castles or creepy old cathedrals. Castles may work well for period pieces or stories of ancient evils, but many modern audiences require stories set in more contemporary environments. Films are often most effective when they take place in a world that people can relate to, and few elements of contemporary life are as universally recognized as the shopping mall. The mall has become a staple of life for people of all ages, from young children in baby strollers to the elderly "mall-walkers" who prowl the complexes each morning. Given that wide-range appeal, it's no surprise that the suburban mall has been the backdrop for a healthy assortment of horror flicks, from gory and grand to downright dismal.
The true societal impact of the shopping mall didn't fully begin to surface until the late 1960s and early 70s, with more and more middle class families fleeing urban environments for the suburbs ringing major cities. The mass exodus took shopping revenue away from the more diversified individual stores that lined the major streets of cities for decades and placed it into the concentrated, newly constructed malls that sprung up to meet the needs decentralized living. The mall became the equivalent of town square, the place where everyone gathered on the weekends, regardless of whether they needed to buy anything or not. It was from this notion, the idea of the mall as a haven for...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!
