The place that has poor lighting can be described as gloomy.
Somber is an adjective that describes a space that has little lighting and where shadows abound . In shady places, therefore, visibility is reduced .
For example: “This restaurant is a bit gloomy, I didn't even read the menu,” “The hotel is located on a gloomy street,” “We need to add another lamp to the room to prevent it from being gloomy.”
Before moving forward, it is interesting to know the etymological origin of the term. Shady comes from the Latin subumbra , which can be translated as “under the shadow .”
About the gloomy
Because darkness is associated with sadness and melancholy , the adjective gloomy allows us to describe places that provoke these feelings. A gloomy place, in this sense, is gloomy , macabre or terrifying : “I don't like this house, it seems gloomy to me,” “The forest, gloomy, hid creepy secrets,” “The girl refused to spend the night in the shelter.” gloomy that generated an unusual fear in him.”
In this way, there are spaces that are defined as dark due to this double characteristic: on the one hand, they lack light (physically); On the other hand, this lack of light causes negative issues to be attributed to them and they become places that generate fear, distress, etc. This can happen with an old house, a poor cabin or a cul-de -sac .
Horror stories usually take place in dark environments.
Horror story scenarios
Due to the characteristics associated with dark places, it is common for many horror novels and films to establish scenarios of this type in order to generate the necessary climate of fear and anguish that is required. A perfect example of this can be found in the film “Sleepy Hollow” ( 1999 ), directed by Tim Burton and starring Johny Depp and Christina Ricci .
The town that gives the production its title is where the story is set, which is truly terrifying. And, taking advantage of the night, a headless horseman dedicates himself to entering the neighbors' houses to end their lives. However, there are those who believe that this is not possible, that it has to be someone of flesh and blood who commits these crimes, so a police officer will be sent to investigate the case.
Precisely that town, to create the desired feeling of dread, is presented as gloomy: it is always in darkness, its buildings are very dark, there are environmental places that are absolutely abandoned, the color black prevails everywhere, the characters are dressed in dark tones …And this creates the perfect environment to develop the plot and to generate the anguish that the residents of Sleepy Hollow experience.
The gloomy associated with the spiritual
As can be seen, many times the shadow is directly linked to something symbolic or spiritual , without there being a relationship with an absence of light in the physical sense.
That is why it can be said that a certain situation or a thought is gloomy: “I was out of work for five months: it was a gloomy moment in my life,” “When my mother died, I lived in a gloomy time,” “That man is gloomy, I don't trust him."