Formulas from Gothic literature established the dominant narrative expressed in horror film—the entrapment of the protagonist in a space where the universe contracts. These entrapments, which include “the corridors of uncounted castles, the dark warrens of Victorian slums, sewers, and mines, the fog shrouded streets of Jekyll’s or Jack the Ripper’s London, and the labyrinth that leads to Dracula’s castle,” are recycled or re-expressed in countless suspense, horror, and slasher films.

XREF: Connects to general knowledge of horror genre history and Gothic literature influence on cinema.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 649