Just Before The Slasher Enters The Room

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 18, 2012 6:00PM

When we watch a horror movie, the background stays firmly in the background. The shadows and eerie silence help create an atmosphere of tension of course; but when the killer strikes, our gaze as viewers is fixed upon the victim—her frantic expression, her screams, her futile resistance, her spattering blood. At the moment of violence, the killer himself is secondary, a notion explored in the movie Peeping Tom. So what if both victim and killer were removed from the scene altogether? What would that environment feel like?

That's exactly what Brittany Pyle's site-specific installation "Night Witch" does. From the show's description:

Influenced by 1970s-1980s horror cinema, Pyle is interested in the mise-en-scéne of a bedroom or living room just before terror strikes. In contrast to a horror film, however, the viewers of Pyle’s installation are no longer restricted to acting as a detached, third party observer. Conversely, the viewer is now immediately implicated in the participation, experiencing the scene just as the intruder does.

Adding to the creepiness, Pyle's installation is located in THE SUB-MISSION, the basement space of the main gallery. Located at THE MISSION, 1431 W. Chicago Ave., "Night Witch" is viewable Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through October 27.