What Do We Do with Vacant Space in Horror Films?

If landscapes of vacancy define the spatial terms of the genre in the 1960s and 1970s in Italy, how should we critically approach these sometimes vague, unspecified spaces? In trying to answer this question, this short essay blurs distinctions. It conflates interiors with exteriors, empty frame compositions with barren profilmic locales, uninhabited zones with barren landscapes. This deliberate recombination of types of space is, however, crucial to keep in play when trying to challenge a larger discursive field, one that exceeds the logic of categorical distinctions. My imbrication of diverse and incommensurate kinds of filmic images originates from my desire to undo those discourses that conspire to claim vacancy as emptiness-to insist that the emptiness of unclaimed space is a done deal and that its filling up is a necessity.