Dead silence in Castle Rock. Just retired, the old man was dressed sharply kissing his wife one second and driving into the lake the next. A young prison guard, staring at the monitor in the control room, suddenly pulled out his gun like he's possessed and started killing. Death strikes without warning, spreading like a ghost through the entire Castle Rock.
Castle Rock is a fictional small town in Maine, where the Shawshank Prison from "The Shawshank Redemption" is located, and it's adjacent to Derry in "It." In 2018, there were around 31,000 such towns scattered across the United States, often appearing in American horror movies as eerie and gloomy places.
Origin: Small Town Literature
As early as the colonial period when the United States was still under British rule, small towns began to appear on the North American continent. Initially, these towns were mostly located near ports, as the interior areas were often sites of conflict between colonists and Native American tribes. This situation limited the spread of small towns. However, by the late 19th century, after the colonists' victory over Native Americans and the growth of industrialization, small towns in the northern regions started to merge and form larger cities, thanks to improved transportation systems. In contrast, urbanization in the southern regions lagged behind due to the long-standing dominance of agriculture. Urbanization in the south resembled more of a blend between urban and rural areas, leading to the proliferation of small towns. The prosperity brought by industrialization disrupted the traditional lifestyle based on plantation economies in the south, affecting all southerners in various ways. This transformation gave rise to a small group of educated individuals among the southern population.
In 1871, William Eggleston compiled the daily life of the small town into a story and wrote "The Hoosier Schoolmaster", marking the beginning of American small town literature.
Several years later, the novel was made into a movie, and the small town appeared on the screen for the first time. Due to the passage of time, the film copy has been lost. The picture shows the flow of people queuing to watch "The Hoosier Schoolmaster" in 1914.
The early 20th century was the golden age of American literature, and the newly born small town literature caught up with the good times and ushered in a small climax.
Firstly, there was poet Edgar Lee Masters. In 1915, he published "Spoon River Anthology". He based it on his hometown of Lewistown and created a fictional town called Spoon River Town. The content of the anthology also depicts various aspects of the lives of small town residents.
One of the most successful authors in this genre was Sherwood Anderson. In 1919, his short story collection "Winesburg, Ohio" depicted a group of individuals in a small town struggling to adapt to industrialization while holding onto traditional values. This portrayal of characters grappling with the changes brought by industrialization earned "Winesburg, Ohio" the reputation as a foundational work in small town literature. The book's thematic depth has influenced later renowned writers such as Hemingway and Faulkner.
Among many writers, there was an outlier who single-handedly opened up the path of horror in small town literature. This person is called Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the creator of the famous Cthulhu mythos. In his vast and terrifying kingdom, most stories take place in a fictional town called Arkham.
More than three decades after his passing, an English teacher in Maine, USA, struggled financially by writing horror novels. Influenced by Lovecraft, he decided to create a fictional town in his third novel. To his surprise, the book, titled "Carrie," was a huge success, establishing his own horror universe. This demonstrates the crucial role of literature as the foundation for films and TV shows; the effectiveness of the text directly impacts how chilling and oppressive the town appears on screen.
The reality: The terrifying real-life towns
Truly frightening things are often scarier when they're based on reality rather than fiction. Art comes from life, and throughout the brief history of the United States, there have been a few truly unbelievable towns. In 1587, a ship carrying over a hundred British immigrants set sail for America, following the orders of Queen Elizabeth I to establish a colony in North America. The ship finally landed on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and three years later, the first small towns were established on the island.
The story begins on the evening of August 18, 1580. John White, the newly appointed governor of the colony, had just arrived on Roanoke Island by boat when he saw smoke signals rising from the town, indicating that it was under attack or in distress. He rushed with his men to investigate but found that all 100-plus residents had vanished. Their dinners were still warm on the tables, and candles hadn't burned down completely, as if they had just left moments before.
White immediately ordered a search, but despite scouring the entire island, not only were no bodies or signs of battle found, but also the mysterious group's ship was still docked at the shore. The only clue was "CROATOAN" carved into a few scattered trees nearby.
Over the next 14 years, the British government dispatched multiple investigation teams to Roanoke Island, but all efforts yielded no results. To this day, the disappearance remains a mystery. It could have been a natural disaster, but what's even more disturbing is the possibility of it being man-made.
In 1692, in Salem Town, Massachusetts, girls in the church began exhibiting a strange illness that caused them to dance uncontrollably. This condition is now known as Sydenham's chorea, and back then, doctors attributed it to witchcraft. The townspeople gathered in the town square where the girls started pointing out witches. Initially, only three women were accused, but as the months went by and the girl's condition didn't improve, over 200 people were ultimately accused of practicing witchcraft. The madness came to an end the following January when Salem Town held a witch trial that led to the execution by hanging of 19 people and another who was crushed to death with stones.
When a town falls into collective ignorance, it's just as suffocating without ghosts or monsters.
Fast forward to modern times in 1947, outside the small town of Roswell, New Mexico. Due to a thunderstorm the previous night, a farmer inspecting the damage discovered scattered metal debris around the countryside. The military then stepped in, collected all the fragments and kept the news under wraps. The next day, the Roswell Daily News published an article titled "Air Force Finds Crashed Flying Saucer in Roswell," which was later reprinted by the New York Times. Soon enough, the entire United States knew about the alleged alien crash in Roswell.
Although the military always claimed it was a surveillance balloon that crashed, skeptics and UFO enthusiasts still believed it was a flying saucer. Coupled with the fact that the town was located near an American Army Air Force base, this only added to its mystery. To this day, there are various theories about what exactly fell that night, but Roswell has become synonymous with UFOs.
These real-life haunted towns are like hidden nightmares in history, remaining relevant and providing a rich source of inspiration for horror stories set in small towns.
Fiction: Utopian Towns in Film and Television
The vastness of the United States means that towns are far apart, naturally isolated from each other. The most distinctive feature of American democracy is decentralization, with towns serving as the basic units of power, highly autonomous, like miniature countries. As a result, towns can be seen as utopian in some ways, but they can also be seen as another form of isolation, which is precisely the nourishment for horror.
In "Silent Hill," the entire town's residents are part of a cult that commits evil acts, burning Elisa alive, only to suffer the consequences themselves by pulling the entire Silent Hill into another dimension.
In "House of Wax," the inhabitants of the entire Ambrose town are killed and turned into wax figures by a twisted serial killer. Due to its remote location, if it weren't for the protagonist's group stumbling upon this place, the dark secret would have remained unknown.
In "2001 Maniacs," the town's residents have all become murderers and the surrounding towns are unable to stop them from killing innocent passers-by.
In the American TV series "Under the Dome," things are even more extreme. An invisible force covers the entire Chester's Mill like a dome, physically isolating it. With resources scarce, the residents' animalistic instincts emerge, turning the town into a jungle.
Apart from fictional utopian towns, real-life horrors in small towns have also made their way onto screens. In the sixth season of "American Horror Story," it's the story of Los Angeles, but with the cause of disappearance attributed to ghosts.
The TV series "Motherland: Fort Salem", which shares the same name as the town, introduces real witches and magic.
During the height of the alien craze, the small town of Roswell became a focal point in various film and television works. One of the most notable adaptations is the 1994 movie "Roswell," which chronicles the events leading up to the town's infamous incident but fails to explore the aftermath.
Among the many fictional towns depicted on screen, perhaps none is as terrifying as Castle Rock. Featured in 13 Stephen King novels, Castle Rock is portrayed as both a picturesque paradise and a suffocating trap for its residents. It serves as a gateway to the town's nightmarish horrors, where the sun never shines brightly, supernatural occurrences are common, and death looms, casting a shadow over the abnormal souls that inhabit it.
People in town always say: "It's not me, there's something wrong with this place." But here, nothing new happens except death.
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