Strangely Familiar Places in Movies Explained
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- čas přidán 14. 05. 2024
- In this video essay we will be exploring and demistifying various types of strange, yet familiar looking places in movies and TV series. These 'unsetteling' places have gained a lot of popularity in recent years and became known as so called: "Liminal Spaces". People have been sharing and discussing pictures of empty shopping malls, playgrounds and hotels all over the internet, but what makes these places so special?
To try and find an answer to this question I decided to shine a new light on this subject by looking at it from the perspective of movies. I was suprised nobody had written about this or made a video on it already, so thats why I gathered a list of movies that feature various forms of liminality. I discovered that directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky and David Lynch had mastered the art of liminal spaces, long before it became a thing. So let me show you how deep the rabbit hole goes...
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Chapters:
0:00 An introduction to Liminal Spaces
3:04 Chapter 1: Physical Liminal Spaces (i.e. Discovering them)
4:51 ii. Exploring Liminal Spaces
7:24 iii. Escaping Liminal Spaces
8:59 Chapter 2: Emotional Liminal spaces
13:06 Chapter 3: Temporal Liminal spaces
The music in this video is royalty free or licensed through Artlist: artlist.io/referral/3497535/D...
So Below - Minecraft Soundtrack
Subwoofer Lullaby - Minecraft Soundtrack
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
#LiminalSpaces #Backrooms #VideoEssay - Krátké a kreslené filmy
You can now add this video to Letterboxd and check out all the movies mentioned! 😉:
letterboxd.com/film/the-art-of-liminal-spaces/
The Truman Show
Spongebob
Being John Malkovich
The Shining
Twin Peaks
The Matrix
Vivarium
Us
Holy Motors
Donnie Darko
The Breakfast Club
It Follows
Squidgame
The Lighthouse
Parasite
Stalker
The Holy Mountain
Blade Runner 2049
Interstellar
2001: A Space Oddysey
W
Brilliant, thank you so much!
Only complaint I have doesn't even apply since it's not the point of your video, but still...having vivarium and Donnie dark limed up with 2001 and holy motors feels wrong somehow. That sounds snobby,but they just don't hold up nearly as well as kubrick and carax
SpongeBob gets a pass because it doesn't make claim to being film...for a cartoon on TV its great that it's interested in a little freakishness. Still it's no Ren and stimpy
Thank u
I use to be a security guard in convention centre. At times there wouldn’t be any events going on and the massive halls, parking garages and meeting rooms would be empty. You’d wonder the whole building at night on patrol and never see or hear anyone. At times it was a very bizarre feeling.
I did the same, as a night guard t a basketball stadium, alone in he building. It was part of the job to go into the bowels of the building once a night-eerie, creepy.
I used to be a security guard at a shopping mall and a 12 story hotel, usually working the overnight shift. Walking a mall at 3am, alone, while your partner is cruising the parking lot (also alone) is really eerie. I never knew which was more so...when some stores accidentally left their music playing or when the mall was completely silent.
The hotel was similarly creepy. Me, a maintenance person, and 1 desk staff (2 on weekends). Walking the floors and the staircases, esp after the top floor restaurant closed, was creepy.
I did too. I liked it.
That sounds terrifying
Might be a bizarre feeling, but it sounds like a great job. All alone, nobody to bother you and lots of time to keep yourself occuppied with your own thoughts.
This is exactly why I love going to movie theaters late at night, alone. Having a huge screen and top notch audio in a large room all by yourself just feels incredible, and then at the end of the movie, walking all the way to a dark, empty parking lot feels surreal.
Saame i love the feeling meanwhile it being unnerving at the same time
I hope you live in a safe city, José Pablo. And I totally agree with you.
Very much David Lynch.
100% agree 😊🖤.
I used to ride my bike out to the latest showings so I could ponder the depths of the movies on my ride back on a deserted road at 3am
"But as humans we have the power to give meaning to emptiness"
This ending quote gave me chills
This video itself can be an example of a Liminal space. I like how this video felt like 40 minutes long even though it's only 16 min long. At the end of the video, It felt like I was trapped inside the video. Surely a very odd experience!!
this was only 16 minutes? I didn't even notice, you're exactly right.. weird
I don't even have the words to explain
So true! The video is perhaps a liminal space between ignorance and knowledge.
Right! I'm not sure if it's his speaking tone or the score he uses
@@undercover_idiot both match perfectly, i love it too
I never knew what this phenomena was. Growing up my mom and I would go on cruises and I would sneak out late at night and walk the long hallways and explore the ship when everyone was asleep, sometimes swimming alone in the indoor pools. The sensation of feeling a bustling place “at rest” was an unusual feeling, almost as if you can feel the vibes of the environment. I’m also an only child, I’m sure that helps overcome the loneliness feeling.
Facilities made for many, inhabited by just one - like a conflict between singular and plural. You nicely put that into words which I normally would criticise:
"this phenomena"
At rest is a good way of putting it. For me it's the freedom to be alone without all the static people give off.
There might be a connection there. I'm also an only child, and I've always loved being alone in large quiet spaces. I lived far away from school, so sometimes I would arrive two hours before the start...then I would go exploring the empty school...exploring alone at night is also something I had done when I went on a trip with someone. I've never felt alone, on the contrary it was really fun and relaxing too. I'm also a fan of urbex...abandoned places just have this special charm to them.
The larger and emptier the space is, the better it is.
i used to do the exact same thing on beach resorts during the summer holidays, i was so fascinated and never knew it had a name, i am also an only child
As an introvert, I don’t get a sense of loneliness regarding liminal spaces. Instead, I feel relief, like how I did when I was a child and a bunch of kids were absent for some reason. If I know I can wander a place alone, unmolested, I get a sense of anticipation, peace, and relief.
Another one of the physical liminal spaces is a hospital late at night. This is probably one of the creepiest I've walked through.
Absolutely love them late at night.
But I thought there are patients staying at the hospital at night 🙃
@@poppytielmann7611 Yeah, but they are sleeping in their rooms
My sister in law worked cleaning a hospital in the night shift and empty hallways, out hospital is like 60-70’s archiquecture
absolutely agreed. i've worked as a barista in a coffee outlet in a hospital. it's more of a 'private' hospital so not much people would be seen at night.
it was time for closing and it was a one-man shift. decided to 'explore' the hospital. it was.. quite unsettling yet so peaceful.
especially at the staff lounge, where it'd usually fills with hospital staffs, nurses and docs. it felt.. empty, mesmerizing and.. idk, i lost word to describe. but it certainly was mixed with confusion. i actually was so indulged in it that almost 2 hours of walking felt like mere minutes. certainly wont forget that moment, especially it's something that i dont know if i could ever live to it again.
This video truly is a masterpiece. I'm addicted to liminal spaces, probably since I was a child and although the experience is usually unsettling and depressive, I just can't resist the temptation to seek them and dive into the eerie atmosphere they provide. Of course, I had to wait for some 18 years before CZcams started suggesting me videos like yours. And the atmosphere you've created is just amazing - thank you!
Big love, thanks a lot!!
@@DuCinema1 You should do more of these cultural philosophical things! Are there more concepts like this that are interesting? Perhaps something like the things in The Weird and The Eerie by Mark Fisher? I absolutely adore these things and find them really interesting.
@@nateman10 Awesome words man!
Life-changing words.
@@nateman10Wow
I felt this terribly for a whole week when I was moving out of my apartment. My roommate has recently just moved out and most of the things in the apartment were his… the emptiness of the place stuck with me til the very end. I felt nostalgic but also… off. I didn’t know if I wanted to be sad or not, but I just felt that. I guess that’s what this is.
Thanks for sharing your story! When my gf, son and I moved into our apartment the empty space (before moving our stuff in) gave me a knot in my stomach. Like a nervous, excited, sad and confused feeling. Every time I think about moving or getting rid of our belongings and making the apartment a bit more empty I get those same emotions and feelings. Bizarre!
During the pandemic, I was working at my university and living on campus.
My university has about 50,000 students so you can imagine how weird it was when I was, at the time, the only person in a very vast open area.
I remember there being more animals roaming about especially in the winter here. It was a very unique experience and I took so many pictures.
It was unique. The solitude as well as the cold winter air from the window that I kept ajar in my apartment. Everything was so quiet at that point that I could hear the snow crackling from the sun's rays.
I went everywhere and walked everywhere at this big university of mine (6 campuses)
Now that everyone is back I often reminisce about that solitude that I had while on campus last year.
Wow that feels like a movie script, phenomenal
Ouch. Write more about that. Please.
On my side I remember these 2 months when I was almost alone on the roads and in my little city.
I have to say it was great. I loved that, sorry, but I'm not a "normal" human.
@@FLH3official the things we take for granted!
At the start of the pandemic I was driving through downtown Tokyo late on a Sunday night. I went past Shinjuku station, one of the world's busiest train stations. Almost no people, very few if any stores or doors open, the normally bright lights were dark. Went by other normally busy stations - also empty. Few cars on the road; I may have been the only car at some stoplights & could fly down the streets. It all felt a bit eerie.
@@JD-nt2sc wow that is an insane experience
Maybe I'm the weird one here, but empty spaces like that are comforting to me. I've always loved being the last one in a building, like a library or mall. I enjoy having stairs, escalators and elevators to myself. Maybe it's because I have to take life one day at a time, due to chronic illness. Change doesn't bother me. I've had to accept that it's going to happen, so I can either be okay with it, or fight it and be miserable.
I contemplated leaving a similar comment here. I'm neurodivergent and seeing empty spaces and uncanny versions of cities in dreams comforts me. It's explained later when compared to people's reaction to the pandemic, it depends on how you experience a break from real life, no matter how much I try to eliminate stressful factors and have more privacy, I still get to a point where I need a break, emotionally.
Yeah the cave is empty it’s safe again.
Same. I love post apocalyptic zombie movies for that reason. I think being one of only a few people left sounds amazing. Mostly in the universe of the movie Zombieland, but same principle.
I can't say that I find empty spaces comforting, but they have attracted and fascinated me since I was a child. In particular, I would frequently fantasize about being in a mall all alone, for some reason.
That’s how I feel about parks and grocery stores…less stress and more time to enjoy nature with my daughter or shopping taking my sweet time.
10:41 I did not expect him to say "You finna die" LOL
There's another one: the Digital Liminal Spaces.
People who used to play the old versions of Counter-Strike or chat inside Worlds, for example, can find servers completely empty these days, and many have described this same feeling on comment sessions or forums. They were spaces where we used to have fun with friends, create new friendships and explore scenarios, and today they are abandoned.
But it doesn't stop at multiplayer games. Other games, like some from Valve itself, like Portal and Half-Life, are set in Liminal Spaces. Completely abandoned laboratories, buildings, parking lots and corridors, with few reminders of people who should be there, such as tables, chairs and computers. But you are alone, trying to get out of there. Trying to get back closer to the things you used to know.
But your video is about Liminal Spaces in movies, so... ^^
if you went on myspace not to long ago before they deleted everyone photos and felt like big time digital liminal space, seeing peoples pages, and photos, but absolutely no one else was on.
Growing up my family traveled a lot and moved quite a bit, so we spent a lot of times in hotels. Hotels naturally being the state of transition were deeply meaningful liminal spaces for me as a child, to the point where I still have dreams to this day of being in an endless hotel filled with long corridors and stumbling upon people from various points of my life.
Of course, airplanes have a similar feel, but they feel more like home to me. It's a funny feeling. Almost like a feeling of oneness with all humanity when I fly.
I'm literally in a hotel right now...ive always gotten the same feeling, especially in the hallways, or the ice machine room with that constant buzz.
I think you forgot one major factor: the architecture itself. You mentioned adolescence briefly, but what really adds to the uncanny feeling is that of a strong memory associated with that scene, especially memories made during childhood. It seems that parts of the scenery trigger some deep memories that we have only just held onto from childhood. It's not nostalgia when looking at the 90's or 2000's architecture, but just a memory, devoid of people.
Inglewood, CA had that feeling for me growing up. Some of the buildings had a 30'aspect but the city hall had a brutalist look coupled with the murals. When the stores were closing and people were leaving the city, it had a lonely abandoned feeling. The two styles made it very liminal. I still dream of market street being vacant, cold and imposing.
Looking at a different life you once lived
I can't express how grateful I am for this video. I'm a film student and I'm making a short film on liminal spaces (we both know that that means so much more than just ''empty spaces'') and the effect they have on people but I've been having problems expressing my ideas and my vision to my teachers. I feel like they just don't understand. This video makes me feel understood. You make me feel understood. You made an insanely great video on the subject and for that I want to thank you. Thank you and greetings from Belgium!
Amazing comment, really cool to hear! België is epic ❤️🙏🙌
Where can I find your short film?
A example of liminal spaces is Severance, the rooms in this series is incredibly beautiful and kinda terrifying
the entire show feels like a liminal space and i loved it
Cool stuff. Minor nitpick, Truman is not taking an elevator up to his office, he ran into a random building because he was suspicious that something weird was going on.
🙏🙏 Oooo hahah lol I watched it a long time ago
also the part where he says the overlook hotel was "abandoned for months" before jack and his family arrived
Also the changes in progressed time in interstelar are not because of some magical wormhole, its just relativity caused by the gravitational effects on spacetime near extremly massive object, quite realistic depiction of space exploration
@@pherdlmitph yes, that would be time dilation.
This is a very impressive video! The editing and script are top notch. I used to live in Florida and visit Seaside (Where they shot The Truman Show) Even though it's obviously a very lively city, something always felt off when I would visit. As if it was from a life I once lived.
wow thats insane! And thank you so man man 🙏🙌
OMG, Yes!! I used to manage vacation homes in Seaside and when it was off season and I would be stuck inspecting one of the homes late into the afternoon, something just felt off. In a tiny town that’s usually bright and full of noise, it was dark and quiet and no one was around. It’s hard to explain the feeling but it definitely felt “off”. I managed homes in multiple communities in the 30A area but Seaside always had the strangest vibe.
one reason i think it may be is because from watching the truman show youd probably be used to seeing it as it was in the film (there would probably only be very tiny differences) and therefore the few changes would make you subconsciously feel like something is off. idk for sure but thats my guess
Let’s see Paul Allen’s video.
@@londonhansen8991 I live in the northeast and spent a lot of time living in beach towns, mostly because of how much I loved the off season. I loved it when the summer people were gone and most of the houses were shut up, most of the stores closed, the beaches empty…it was so peaceful and quiet. Yes, there was a certain creepiness to it as well, but that may have been part of the attraction for me.
Liminal space reminds me of being in my great great grandfather‘s farm house right before sunset. No furniture in the house, but kept immaculately, clean inside and outside. Unnerving and yet comfortable. Foreign yet familiar.
So THAT is why interstellar's music is so beautiful, haunting, comforting, and eerie despite never seeing the movie.
Han Zimmer managed I suspect to musically depict liminal space.
About 15 mins ago I finished up doing some electrical work in a nearly abandoned mall that used to be quite popular when I was a kid, not even that long ago. Was really creepy. Interesting that I came across this video when I did
Wow that is epic! What a coincidence
The algorithm knows all and sees all. Maybe the algorithm sent you to the mall just so you'd eventually end up here... 😂
I've seen abandoned malls too. Places look less relevant without traffic sometimes. And then, I begin to suspect that time has stopped inside those confines. I feel like I'm stealing away.
Those same places are exciting because they represent a clean slate.
Anything can be potentially born of a void, an emptiness.
This is a true masterpiece, impecable transitions, amazing analysis and overall incredible execution. I wish I could leave more than one like.
❤️👑🙏 Thank you so much, really!!
Invite your friends
I'm a cleaner at a hospital and every time I have to clean somewhere that's completely empty it always feels like a liminal space and I love it so much! Especally when it's at night time.
This is exactly what draws me to urban exploring.
Especially large abandoned factory halls are very impressive because of this.
Knowing that there have been people working, having their day to day life, people that are long gone and forgotten already, swallowed by the anonymity of history.
Most people rationally know their insignificance and impermanence, but to let it sink in and actually feel it... now that's a very humbling experience...
Introverts strangely may not fell this way, it's hard to explain, but we may not get the same feeling of loneliness from empty places, but as a place of tranquility and peace.
This is only your experience. I'm an introvert and these spaces are very scary for me because they provoke existensial questions in my head
As I sat down and enjoy my time alone, I suddenly think or look around the environment and remembers some memories of it or remind me of something I've experienced before and never again. I can't believe that dreaming of a liminal spaces would be very special to me because I get to explore them once and wakes up to reality.
Or both. It's not a binary.
@@davidstepanczuk Yes
@@davidstepanczuk I'd agree. I'm a poster child for introversion, and have worked graveyard shifts at a convenience store, and as security for both a large shopping mall and a 12-story hotel. Sometimes pretty creepy, other times peaceful.
A topic I feel like you missed is liminal music. It’s quickly become one of my favorite genres. When done right, it can be super immersive and nostalgic.
wow yea kinda. I touched upon it shortly in the end
@@Syncopator Isn't it supposed to represent going through Alzheimer's?
Thanks for the nightmares! I looked up some liminal music and cant sleep anymore. :)
@@tristanabrams4556 you’re welcome!
Yes, right, especially the music in all David Lynch's movies - moves me deeply, even the James's song "Just you and I", the girl's song from "Eraserhead" - creepy and hypnotic.
Similar effect from Cliff Martinez - very unsettling feeling, but can't get enough.
Another fine example of Liminal Spaces is Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Perhaps we need an entire video on Kubrick and all of his movies
A film with a good example of liminal spaces is Spirited Away! The abandoned amusement park where the spirits appear is a prime liminal space. The train ride showing the expansive spirit world also has those vibes. They also show more views of the amusement park at the end of the film, which are perfect stills of liminal spaces.
Absolutely fantastic video essay. Loved learning about the terminology to describe these unique spaces and feelings. Just subscribed!!
Thank you soo muchh! And holy your channel is awesome!!!
Ain’t no way
People rarely mention Jim Henson's earlier work "The Cube" a horrifying liminal concept in which a man must "find the exit to HIS cube" all the while watching others enter and exit freely. It gets overlooked due to it not containing any Muppets.
Claustrophobic movie, with that gritty feeling that characterised films of the late 90s / early 00s.
Well, I looked it up and now I' not sure what reality is but good suggestion. haha
@@SamuelSmith-ol6jc Existential crisis at it's finest.
Yes, glad someone mentioned this early masterpiece.
Another that immediately came to mind is the 2007 movie "1408".
As an Indian med student, the biggest liminal spaces for me are hospitals at night. On day it’s extremely crowded. Staff members, doctors, nurses, patients, students, relatives. It’s all filled. Literally thousands of people, but at night it’s all totally empty, maybe a few security guards and one or two guys at the canteen. But inside it’s all empty, no one’s there. Very long hallways and passages, so many unused rooms, confusing massive infrastructure, simple and repetitive interiors, one floor in specific is where no patients are there. So it’s way too big and way too quiet.
My mum was the head director from my school and I remember that feeling of seeing my school empty... You can almost see the people by watching these empty places, byvthey're empty. It made me feel melancholic as I could see how fast time passes
Someone already mentioned it, but I strongly recommend the Apple TV show called "Severance" with Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro and Christopher Walken. The endless maze of liminal corridors of the office building are a disturbing metaphor for the whole idea of working for a corporation in which you have an inner "artificial" corporate life that is completely severed from your outer "real" life.
I wonder what architects/interior designers would have to say on liminal spaces, given it is their design that makes us feel whatever way we feel when we enter a place
That is a really interesting thought!
We actually have to study about liminal spaces or 'non-places' during architecture school. Places like airports, shoppings malls and train stations are all designed to look similar so that no matter where you are in the world their is a sense of familiarity, whilst being eery and uncomfortable sometimes. The space between these locations is liminal space like train tracks etc. you'd never use these or be on train tracks unless travelling from one place to another
What if architects don't create buildings but.... the ones who control this simulation (or the A.I.) constructs these places?
I feel like all my aesthetic inspiration boils down to liminal spaces. I can't believe I just lately discovered the term for it. Liminal spaces have been so interesting to me my whole life. And now I've found a whole community behind it. The internet is a wonderful magical place
Same here. I used to think I was weird, wanting to hang out in places like random hallways, or indoor pools, for seemingly no reason. I'm so glad to hear other people feel the same way. If I was rich I would build some liminal spaces, maybe a hotel or some kind of apartment complex.
The Shining is the perfect example of this.
Highly recommend checking out the subreddit for this if you're interested in this whole concept.
So I was a Marine and served on a Navy ship for a little bit… the staircases on those ships, by yourself, are the creepiest things in the world. I never really knew why, but I feel like it’s the combination of what you explained about elevators and staircases being isolating transitional spaces you don’t usually spend a lot of time in, and the “run from imaginary monsters up the basement stairs” factor because not only are they eerie naturally but almost totally vertical, making you sprint up them (or jump down them) to be more efficient… or if you take your time, you end up climbing them way longer than is comfortable. Then every creak, every wave the ship rolls over, is just being shrouded in this dark place straight outta WW2, with the added creep factor of being lit by a red light (to save your night vision) at night.
I had a friend that lived next to my school. When I visited him at night, we could see the empty school from his house, and it always felt quite scary, as if something unexpected could appear in the playground or the halls out of nowhere
In the physical part of liminal spaces, the specific kind that stands out for me is dark school hallways. I used to have club meetings in middle school that got out after everything was shut down, and the dark, empty halls always scared me.
That ending was... really impactful. The thought that without human intervention, spaces mean nothing is horrific and fascinating. Absolutely stunning video.
The Umbrella Academy series also uses this element at the end of it. The last season goes by in a hotel where stairs, hallways, elevators and hotel rooms are key and fades and mark a limit between reality of the moment and a parallel world min the same exact moment. Glad I found this about liminal espaces, now it all makes a lot more sense to me! Thank you
This video essay gave me chills and actually made me cry a little by the end... I feel like it touched the strings of my very soul.
The liminal experience is such an important part of human existence, which is so difficult to explain but you did it perfectly.
I'm writing an academic task on "Stalker" right now and you really made me understand it better, as well as all of the films mentioned.
Thank you so much.
Amazing to hear!! Good luck on the academic task!
You also could’ve mentioned a clockwork orange. That movie gave me a really big liminal space feeling and the dystopian London in it is amazing.
Yuppp, very true
Eyes Wide Shut too.
Guess who made A Clockwork Orange? His first name starts with S and his last name starts with a K. Singing in the rain, just singing in the rain.
@@1pcfred obviously I would know he’s like the greatest director oat
@@finn._.0874 wasn't he mentioned in this video?
Idk how, but you connected in a single video stuff and concepts that I'm personally obsessed with for the past few years. The caretaker's music, liminal spaces, the dictionary of obscure sorrows, and dystopian movies. The eeriness of it all makes me strangely comfortable as if the world's chaotic reality, which gives us so much stress, was swept away inside an uncanny dream.
David Lynch's Eraserhead is also a good example of liminal spaces and the isolation it creates
"I'm Thinking of Ending Things" takes place exclusively in liminal spaces of every category mentioned in this video. the most existentially unsettling movie I've ever seen
Oh man! Yes! The endless blizzard covered highway. They also added eery music to add to it. That film was a slow burn but sure was an experience!
I think haunting in hillhouse had bits of liminal spaces also!
I don't know if this counts as a liminal space, but one of my most powerful early memories is back when I was only 4 or 5. I'm in my bedroom, looking out the window as dusk starts, and I just keep watching the room get darker and darker, until I finally turn on the bedroom light. It was like the whole world was going dark, because I couldn't see any other lights from my bedroom window.
I LOVE empty places. Loved exploring them as a child. My mom was a M.S. teacher, and when she had a meetings I'd happily play on the empty schoolgrounds for hours. Always found a certain feeling of peace on empty places.
Fun fact: The album Everywhere at the end of time by The Caretaker is a representation of the developing stages of Dementia. The album starts with music from the 60s with little static but as it progresses it slowly transitions to just sounds with no structure. Eventually not even sounding like music anymore. It’s a weird experience listening to all six hours at once but it’s worth it if you have the time
I have heard of it and it is a very bizarre thing, I haven’t listened to it.
You HAVE to see Jasper Mall, a documentary about a mall that isn't as popular as it once was. I always hated malls, too crowded, too busy. But walking through a mall these days can engender a strange nostalgia of a time lost. I might be ultimately glad that it was lost, but it was a part of reality at one time...
I live all alone in a big house, I moved here at the beginning of the pandemic. I moved from California to Texas and when I arrived at my new home after driving three days through the desert, I found no one to meet me, the key to the house was left under a squirrel statue in the back yard, the whole house was empty it was wonderful and surreal. The movers would not arrive with my things for four more days so I stayed in the house alone with nothing. It was the ultimate liminal space, and although I have filled it with furniture it’s still an empty house, I don’t know any of the neighbors and I don’t know where anything in the city is. On the drive to Texas everything was closed along the entire route it was the beginning of the national lockdown, all the rest areas were closed and I was able to find hotels to stay in each night but they were empty and you couldn’t leave your room. So bizarre
Had a similar feeling flying over Quebec City in my helicopter, it was the middle of the day and you hardly saw anything move...
The section on emotional liminal spaces perfectly described the transition I’m going through in my life as a high school senior transitioning into adulthood. That feeling of nostalgia, reflection has always been at the tip of my tongue. Chapter 2 actually painted a clearer picture, thanks for the insight.
I always loved walking the halls of my school whenever I had any sports or orchestral band gigs after school hours. It just felt so peaceful in an area that's usually really loud and full of kids hustling to their next class.
The fact that a lot of my favorite movies are featured in this video is fascinating and scary at the same time lol. But in all honesty, I loved this video. I am in general quite fascinated by liminal spaces and I loved how you connected this phenomenon to all these movies. It shines a whole different light on them I never really thought about. And I also loved how you went in really deep into the subject by dividing liminal spaces into physical, emotional and psychological. Thank you!
🙏🙏🙏 So great to hear, thank you kindly for the awesome comment
Man I know what you mean. I have seen all the movies mentioned. Except 3. Two of those movies I had been planning to watch.
Most of those movies have a really special place in my heart too. Especially 2001 and interstellar. Those really had something sublime about them that resonated with me on another level.
Stephen King's "The Langoliers" gives me that feeling of emptiness and "not supposed to be here" almost perfectly. It creeps me out. Such a great story as well.
Hah, just scrolling down reading comments and found another fan ;) (commented on the same film above). I was convinced it was an extremely niche (possibly cult?) production. Empty airports are the best.
There's a video on CZcams of someone who manages to travel through North Korea, and is able to film in a completely empty airport - pretty crazy! It's operational but simply has so few flights / flyers, that when he arrives in the morning there are but a handful of people.
I watched the Langoliers for tge first time last week and I loved it. The airport I most commonly fly out of it just as small as Bangor’s in the movie, and I have been there from 6AM to 2AM. I think the movie perfectly captures the feeling the place can have without the cozy airport music.
Rod Serling is the Granddaddy of exploring liminal space on the screen long before it was a thing or a meme. The Twilight Zone is itself a liminal space.. so many great episodes that take place - The After Hours, Where Is Everybody? and sooo many more.
A good example of using liminal spaces for a creepy effect but in a theme park ride instead of a movie is The Twiight Zone Tower of Terror at Walt Disney World. The queuing area takes place in the grounds and lobby of an abandoned hotel, complete with very Shining-like old timey background music. The preshow then goes into an abandoned library, and afterwards guests are brought to the abandoned boiler room in the basement. The ride itself takes place on an old service elevator that hasn't run for years, and the elevator basically serves as the transition vehicle for leaving reality for the Twilight Zone. Midway through the ride, the elevator actually begins to move horizontally down a hotel hallway, which (I never thought about this before, but it's true) is literally a liminal space within a liminal space.
The ride arguably also uses temporal liminal spaces in addition to physical ones, because it is designed to have a nostalgic feeling for the Golden Age of Hollywood of the 1920s and 1930s, and the framing device of using The Twilight Zone TV show as an overall theme, is nostalgic for people familiar with that show from the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Emotional liminal spaces. That is something i never thought about and its just spot on. The exact feeling i have when coming home from college and feeling like "im lost in space" (how i usually put it). I get this feeling at times when the environment around me or my routine is changing (or maybe after finishing a movie or show i was really invested in) . Great video!
Giorgio DeChirico was a surrealist artist who painted liminal spaces before the concept had a name. Empty city streets, shadows, and an overwhelming sense of the uncanny.
This was a great video, the best I’ve found so far on the subject of liminal spaces. Subscribed.
Every single movie you mentioned is brilliant. These are all on my favorites list.
Great vid! Can't wait to see future content of yours!
🙏🙏🙏 Amazinggg! Many more to come!!
THE HOUSE from the Sopranos is a good example, you know the one. Even if you didn't it probably registered in your subconscious watching the show.
Tony's dream of his mother in "calling all cars", Uncle Pat's house in upstate NY, the house in hell (Finnerty reunion), Livia's house I can go on. It is so unnerving to me and that really is because it fits the liminal feeling. Even when he's at the "reunion" it feels empty, even though you can hear people. You barely see anyone yet they're making noise. This evokes a similar feeling to empty gmod maps with ambient city sound.
The last line you said in this video "as humans we have the power to give meaning to emptiness" is so profound!! Genuinely that's some real like defining the "meaning of life" philosopher level shit. Bravo homie, well done. Thanks for all the hard work you put into this video
I know a liminal space I've been to so there's a swimming pool in my school and when we enter the pool area it feels oddly familiar the short roof the lightings the dullness it exactly looks like a liminal space and I feel nostalgic whenever I go there...
Your video perfectly explains why I find urbexing (urban exploring) so fascinating. You're walking around in a building where once so many people worked or lived, and now it's in decay. Sometimes it's buildings that are closed off like they're little time capsules. Almost like in American Psycho, where it seems like the people left to run an errand and just never returned. Sometimes you come across some weird stuff and wonder what the story behind it is. Like a space I visited once that had boxes and boxes of combs. Probably thousands of combs in boxes.
Edit: To add to the above: I would never have been able to put into words the feeling I have when I walk around those places. i'm not even sure if I was aware of this feeling. Your video made me reflect on this, so it was really inspiring.
i'm a massive horror fan and i remember watching 'us' and just being absolutely blown away by the backrooms scenes. i almost wanted to just stay there forever, watching the rabbits hop around, but i also felt super uncomfortable. awesome video - loved the bits from the shining. it's my favorite horror movie and you just peeled back another layer on its genius
Wow, just wow! This video just blew my mind wide open. All too often it's easy to just consume cinema superficially; the sugary-entertainment glaze on the surface...but to dive deeper into the message and the poetry of how things fit together is really magical. Thank you!
I was stranded in Birmingham's old New Street Railway station overnight after a Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert November 2011. . A public space, in a public building, in a city that I'd never been to before, from 12 midnight it was devoid of people and the building was encapsulated by fog. The only sound I could hear was the whirring of the escalators. The sheer isolation and weirdness still haunt me to this day. There's more to this story, but I've never felt so profoundly alone as I did that night! I love the vid .
They're the perfect way to describe the feelings/experiences/realizations you go through when you go through anxiety and begin to "wake up"
Yes, in fact that is the first context in which I heard the term, more of a mental "place", rather than a physical one.
This is fascinating! I have dreams, sometimes nightmares about being trapped in places Ike this. Usually it’s a parking garage, but sometimes a it’s shopping center. I walk around and and around and can’t find my way out. This video captures the experience so well!
Was reminded of the very same thing while watching this too. I've had countless liminal dreams like that throughout my adult life. Elevators taking me on endless journeys in every direction including sideways (and often having to switch from one to another to get me to my destination - which i never do) or long empty tunnels, deep winding staircases, interconnecting rooms with no final exit...
All my life I've had dreams about moving into a new home, although some of them were altered versions of places I'd lived before. Sometimes I'm moving back in with former beloved roommates, my ex and/or my children. The homes always end up having more rooms than I expect.
I used to think that they were dreams of nostalgia, wishing to return to another time in my life. I eventually realized that the homes represented myself and my life, and that I was going through a change, in reality or psychologically. This video makes sense as it describes these spaces of familiarity and unfamiliarity.
"Life is just one big liminal space - between birth and death."
I've been seeing my life like this ever since the pandemic, and I'm not sure how to go back. I'm drawn to liminal space in photos and films, and though it's comforting, I'd like my own life to stop feeling like this. Thank you for articulating this. Maybe by understanding this, I can start to change it.
So interesting to hear, very glad you found this interesting! 🙏
you can't go back. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. You can movie forward, but never backward. It gets shitty before it gets amazing...but some people stop in the shitty part, obsessively wishing to go back to the good, not realizing they can push forward to amazing. But never mistake, it does take wading through shit to get there. The truth WILL set you free...but first it will piss you off. ❤ 💔 ❤🔥
The editing and the narrating on point
🙏🙏🙏
When I was in highschool I used to study late at night and it was all empty. The dining hall, the class rooms, the washrooms and nobody was outside. They were all in the dorm rooms sleeping. It was nice. Especially in comparison to how busy it all was during the day.
Apple's "Severance" was the first show that came to my mind while watching this incredible video. I immediately understood why the set and art direction had such an unsettling effect on me. Bravo!
This is the best description of liminal spaces I've seen. We use transitional spaces like stairways, halls, elevators, etc. all the time, but never spend prolonged periods there which is why they feel so weird when you do
Liminal spaces is almost like claustrophobia. The two are very connected to me
Absolutely masterful breakdown. Your choice of music across this is absolutely phenomenal. The moment I heard Portal's iconic sountrack at the start made me realise that this was definitely worth the full watch as that soundtrack encapsulates that same liminal feeling in an auditory way and that you truly understand what gives these liminal spaces their true detachment from what we perceive as reality. I am a little surprised you didn't bring up either The Stanley Parable or Black Mirror though, considering their subject matter, but very well done either way.
🙏🙏🙏 Thank you so muchh for the awesome words!
This is why I love obscure mall, libraries during closing hour and parks during night
Every single night, for most of my life, I have dreams that take place in shopping malls - they vary from empty malls, to every so slightly populated. Calm, nostalgic, and vaguely familiar. I just wish I knew why I basically have the same type of dream every single night.
working in plumbing and hvac, I have found myself in these sorts of spaces quite a bit over the years.
I actually enjoy them quite a bit. it's calming. there are few things to pull at the strings of my adhd brain and I can just... exist. it's almost meditative.
This is what my house feels like when my kids aren’t living with me, but with their mother. Not a situation I chose. The things they leave behind, the space they should be occupying and without the noise they should be making, it feels like an alternate reality.
I remember when I was like 7 or 8 years old and my family was moving, we had a storage unit inside a massive indoor uhaul storage building. While my parents were organizing stuff in the shed me and my brothers were running around the place, we were the only ones in it. The place felt huge and completely empty, just seemingly endless rows upon rows of storage shed doors... Kinda like the aisles in a Walmart but instead of shelves it was just shed doors. The white fluorescent lights were only on in some areas so it was dark in some places. We were just enjoying running down the empty hallways full sprint, but I remember at one point I separated from the rest and got so far I couldn't hear anyone, just the sound of my own echoing footsteps and other than that dead silence, and because every hallway looked identical I was starting to get lost with each turn. At that point I started to feel really unsettled, and soon I was sprinting back to find the others as that unnerving feeling of being lost in the uncanny came over me and I knew I had to get out of there.
I hadn't thought about that for years until I watched this video, and I've watched plenty of liminal space videos before but this is the first one that actually made me remember my real life liminal space experience
I remember watching the black hole scene from Interstellar for the first time and the feeling was something of a mixture existentialism and a weird nostalgia . All that infinite timelines in a multidimensional reality along with Hans Zimmer's score in the background just amplified the feeling.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World has liminal spaces as well when Scott goes through different doors throughout the movie until its ending when he wants to go with Ramona Flowers after he defeats her exes and he fought for her the whole time.
Loved this video!! I think the Netflix series “Dark” combines these liminal spaces. The anime “Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood” does so as well. 🙌🏻
Yes, I was also amazed by the series "Dark". Really interesting, one of my top list.
Scenes like these can sometimes be a great relief in films that are otherwise visually busy, action-packed, and full of quick cuts.
this is the most fascinating videos I've ever seen. It perfectly encapsulates what liminal spaces are. This was wayyyy deeper than I thought it would be. An amazing video with incredible editing and production etc. I have one plight though, some liminal spaces do bring feelings of sadness, but some are comforting. Overall an amazing video!!
I have a constant reoccurring liminal space dream, endless halls, well lit and tiled in white and cobalt blue tiles. But filled with pools, swing lanes, multi level halls pools. Oddly euphoric.
"As humans we have the power to give meaning to emptiness"
Thank you for that.
I think you could add liminal spaces in music - as you did with the soundtrack to your video. There were some obvious classics that expand the feeling of emptiness and transition.
Interesting topic and awesome video! I also love empty spaces like footage from Pripyat after the Chernobyl incident or the empty city from I am Legend or in any other post-apocalyptic movies.
I'm in my mid 30s now and i still feel like I am stuck in the emotional liminal space between adolesence and adulthood. The time when I realized how the world really is...
incredible video essay. those last lines were haunting and hit me hard with their eloquence.
No wonder I hate waiting rooms!
I also hated the COVID pandemic. I had just retired and moved out of an urban area to a rural town. I had made friends in the town, then one day, the middle of town was just too quiet. All the community events that I loved were canceled for the year. The isolation was really creepy.
And as a 67 year old who remembers childhood in the late 1950s and 1960s, I do feel like I'm waiting for the coziness and safety of being a child to return. It wasn't fun for me to be 20-something to 50-something, living in the city and working as a "cubicle rat" for a corporation day in and day out.
I've had dreams of houses that had room after room after room, some nicely decorated, some partially decorated. Some of the dreams became disturbing or creepy, like thinking a room was haunted.
I dream of rooms a lot..usually I'm just suddenly in a familiar room and as the dream progresses the rooms will become endless..often it will be an apartment complex of some kind with carpet.
@@leeannasloan2292 mine would start with familiar houses that either I visited or my parents rented, then I would find more rooms hidden as I toured the house. Many were gloomy, some bothered me, like they were haunted by a presence, but I never actually saw anything like a ghost etc. I haven't had those dreams in awhile. Yours seem more like the backrooms lol
@@Wario7793 I always described them as looking like rooms stanley Kubrick designed...but in a dream. No reason, no end, no beginning..creepy, shifting, uncomfortable colors. Suddenly there's a door or window or stairs. Iv also dreamed of houses being mazes or a "fake" haunted house you have to go through..or you cannot find a door because there is no door..
I've recently been really fascinated with liminal spaces but I wasn't quite sure why. This video perfectly articulated the feelings behind my interest. Thank you for this masterpiece.
An absolutely PERFECT video! I love these spaces and the very concept of them. Brilliant
One of the best liminal spaces for me is within the British tv series ‘The Prisoner’. Very unnerving yet strangely attractive.
I was in the Santa Barbara airport at the very beginning of the pandemic.
There were probably 5 guys in TSA and once through, in the main terminal, my husband and I were alone. There were only 5 passengers on our flight.
I walked the length of the terminal (it's not large, really) and everything was closed. It was very eerie.
We stopped in SLC on the way back and there were more people there but certainly not the normal amount. There was a restaurant there still open and we stopped in (because everything had been closed in SB). We were the only customers in the large restaurant.
It was a very surreal experience. I like experiencing spaces like that. When I was in college I subbed as a lifeguard for one of my friends over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was an indoor Olympic sized pool. And I was the only one in the room for over 4 hours and I couldn't go into the water. It was a very memorable experience.
Oh! And there was one other that I just thought of--that I didn't realize was likely a liminal space as well. But, when I was 9, my dad drove me from Connecticut back to the DC area in the middle of the night. As a child, being allowed to be up all night is a strange experience. But, at around 4 in the morning, we stopped at Coney Island. Of course it was closed, but the memory and the interesting feeling of being in a place that was usually full of people and activity, but devoid of those people and activity is one I love to revisit. I'm not sure my dad experienced it the same way as he was tired and stressed having to drive all night but as a child, with no responsibilities save to experience it all and the uniqueness of it all was very special.
Had a similar experience in Munich at the airport. Just dropped of a friend and wondered around after that. It was soooo empty it was scary. Felt like the end of the world.
When i was about 6 six old, my pre-school had an anused bathroom that had flickering lights, high ceiling, spacious, a clutter of amusement park things at the corner of the room and the urinal were at the far end of the room. there was something odd about it, so i walked. that feeling never left me till this day. i began to realize the familiarity of that feeling when i'd be in empty school halls or corridors. i never question why i'd get this feeling but stumble across this video made realize what i'd feel. thanks due cinema.
Stray, the game, is actually full of liminal spaces, passing from one to another, at each turn! And I love that they were able to capture this feeling even when there is monsters or robots around!