The Room

A modern adaptation of the novella „The Picture in the House“ by H.P. Lovecraft

Similar to H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Picture in the House”, its modern adaptation asks the question what and who we would meet in the isolated big city. There as well intensity, loneliness and absurdity unite to reach the perfect horror.

The Western world is open, versatile and multicultural. So people say. But is this really the case? And what happens, if a young Anthropology student explores this question in the oppressive setting of a Berlin “Plattenbausiedlung” (common building style in the former GDR to accommodate as many people as possible in a very confined way). People live close-packed, share a common wall, but lack any social interaction with each other.

H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Picture in the House”, dating back to 1921, starts with a boy who gets lost in a remote English country house, far away from civilization. Similar to this story and beginning with the comment that those who love the truly terrible do not have to search for it in strange and remote locations, but can find what they are looking for in old country houses in the woods of New England, its modern adaptation asks the question what and who we would meet in the isolated big city. There as well intensity, loneliness and absurdity unite to reach the perfect horror.