nakahara wrote:
rlogcabin83 wrote:
Before I saw this post I posted a new topic on a horror film that I thought had a bearing on the episode. 1960s Roger Corman - The Masque of the Red Death w/Vincent Price.
They are moving from room-to-room with different colors as in the Poe story and film. All leading to death.
http://sherlock.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=7300
Very good observation!
The Masque of the Red Death is a classic and I would not be surprised if the horror buff like Mark Gatiss used it here deliberately.
Also, Edgar Allan Poe, the father of both the modern horror genre and the detective genre, would be wonderfully fitting for Sherlock show!
To continue attacking the deceased equine: I have watched the episode again. Still, I am struck how the puzzles laid out by Eurus require all of them to move from room-to-room, and I am convinced that this is a Poe story reference as well as the Roger Corman film The Masque of the Red Death. More detail: In the Poe story the rooms are laid out East to West. Analysis of the Poe story by others suggests that the reasoning for this is an allegory of life. I.E. East is the direction of the rising sun and West, the setting sun, and all of the progression of life can be paralleled with that progression of the day - birth to death. East, of course, has everything to do with Eurus and the meaning of her name. The East wind comes from that direction, but blows West, the direction of the rooms in the story.
The first room they enter is painted Red. Mycroft comments on the new paint job. He realizes that something has been prepared for them, even though Sherlock dismisses his comment. But the room is not solidly painted red. It is a hurried spray paint job that only partially covers the walls. In the Poe story, I do not believe that there is a red room. (So, perhaps the room is a threat of death? One they might escape rather than a promise of death?) Poe uses red symbolically as representing both life, in the form of blood, and death. But it is associated with black, the color of the next room that our boys must enter. Black is the color of death in the story and is represented as such in the Corman film. The story has the room lit with ruddy light through red windows. It is the last room and it is where the main character, Prince Prospero, meets death. So, the boys are moving backwards through the progression. Why? I am going to need to think about that. But I can speculate that it is moving towards the reveal of Sherlock's memories about Eurus and Redbeard -- a "birth" or sorts if you like. (Well, I am not entirely satisfied with that. Still thinking.) The next room seems to be gray in color. But, if you squint, you might call it blue or bluish-gray. And depending on your TV screen, color can vary widely. So it might be obviously blue on some monitors, but wasn't on mine. In the story and film, the blue room is the first room and signifies birth. So, why have they skipped to that? Well, it could be just time constraints. But it could be related to my speculation above about the "birthing" of Sherlock's memories. Or perhaps the coming back into the world of Eurus.
Maybe some of this is a stretch, but I know there is a tie-in here.
