The disturbing figures battle in the stained glass that obscure most all of the views out of the house. The contorted, exaggerated art continues inside, both faceless and over-faced. If you haven’t noticed, The Atrocities is well familiar with the tropes of Gothic fiction which we examined last week, and pleasurably delivers amplified versions of them throughout. The wind picks up, dragging the heavy blanket of cloud across the firmament. These sculpted figures reach to the heavens, their fingers curled. Dozens of headless figures populate the yellowing, weatherworn façade. Stockton House scratches at the gray sky with two pyramid spires. When she emerges from the maze, pulling her roller luggage, the young governess gets her first view of the old, converted cathedral in which she will be tutoring an eight-year-old girl: There is no risk of her getting lost, not if she can follow the instructions written for her using the grotesque statues in the maze as landmarks: a screaming woman with a collapsing face, a big-breasted bear with a child’s head in her jaws. The Atrocities opens with Danna Valdez navigating a hedge maze.
