PROP CULTURE: THE NESTING 1981

I've just been watching The Nesting on You Tube from 1981.

Not a particularly memorable horror film, it does contain an element which has always fascinated me, namely the Gothic Romance novel.

The Nesting is that rare film that contains such a novel. Its the prop - pictured - which gives the movie its title [one of many names it has I might add]. The story is about an author, Lauren Cochran, who rents a large house in which to complete her novel. As you can guess the house turns out to be a haunted brothel.

I've never come across a film with a nested book inside it which gives it its title. I say nested because i can't think of another word, although I've talked about this before in terms of films within films.

The book The Nesting was fabricated for the film as a prop. It doesn't exist in its own right as far as I can see from online searches. They made quite a few copies for the film, which I assume is a stack of the same random hardback books with the film's custom covers over them as you can see in the following screengrabs.

In the movie, the author is out driving one day and comes across the house described in her book and on the cover. This deja vu is a rather neat twist, which further nests the book into the fabric of the film.

The location itself is actually a well-known New York State octagonal landmark, the Armour-Stiner house in Westchester County.

The 'The Nesting' book cover art [artist unknown] depicts the house in classic Gothic Romance style, principally at night with an upstairs light on and a lady running away in a distressed state.

I had thought that the artist may have simply lifted an existing cover like these:

But by painting the actual Armour Stiner house and a lady who looks like the lead actress I think its an original illustration in its own right.

Its a pity that the film distributors didn't simply use it to promote the movie rather than relegating it to the dark left corner and generalising it in the process, the octagonal house making way for a regular mansion.

The VHS VIPCO video art all but abandons the subtle tropes of Gothic Romance found on the original book cover. The artist has at least retained the octagonal house with an illuminated window, but its now surrounded by a garish band of dark luminescent figures. Most obvious of all is the omission of the fleeing gothic damsel to make way for the new icons of the video nasty, the scream and the scythe. Shame.

Have you seen The Nesting readers? Are you aware of any other books made specifically as a film prop?