Netflix has come under fire for using the sites of past atrocities as locations or inspiration for its nostalgic hit show Stranger Things — including a plan to let fans book a themed cell in a former holocaust prison on Airbnb.
Two of the locations in its fourth season — the final episodes of which were released last week — have dark roots in the real world.
Russian prison scenes were filmed in a former Lithuanian prison that was used by Nazis during the Holocaust, while the show's fictitious mental hospital was inspired by an infamous US asylum with a similar name.
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Mental health and Jewish advocates have criticised the streaming giant for what they see as exploitation of brutal history. Both locations are also now used as tourist attractions.
But as the demand for "dark tourism" — historical attractions associated with death or tragedy — grows, the line between education and entertainment has blurred.
Forensic anthropologist and criminologist Xanthe Mallett says it's important to remember the horrors of the past without exploiting its victims.
"We don't want to forget those lessons, we don't [want to] make those same mistakes again and we shouldn't wipe those places from history … but I think it's equally important that these places don't become tourist traps," she says.
A symbol of the Holocaust
Lukiškės prison, in the city centre of Lithuania's capital Vilinus, was closed in 2019 and has since become a cultural hub for live music and events, yet for many, the prison remains a symbol of Nazi brutality.
In 1941, Lukiškės prison was used as a holding cell for Jewish people during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. Around 350 Jews imprisoned at Lukiškės were later killed in the Ponary massacre, where 100,000 people were killed, many of whom were Jewish and Roma.
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Netflix partnered with Go Vilnius tourism to develop a Stranger Things-themed cell within the Lukiškės complex to be rented out on Airbnb.
A petition against the proposal gained more than 53,000 signatures, leading Go Vilnius to shut down the project indefinitely.
Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, has an ID number tattooed inside her wrist, reminiscent of tattoos given to Jewish prisoners in World War II. Fans of the show have been emulating the numbers with tattoos themselves — which Netflix has shared on its social media accounts.
Peter Werthweim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry called the use of Nazi-style motifs and locations "obscene".
"Netflix should apologise and take accountability for the use of Lukiškės Prison in this way. The producers have shown a callous disregard for the suffering of Jews and Roma at that terrible place," Wertheim says.
"Whether they are conscious of it or not, their work has trivialised the enormity of the Holocaust, desensitised the public to the horror of genocide, and thereby helped lay a foundation for future acts of cruelty and butchery."
The ABC approached Netflix for comment, but the company did not respond before publication.
'Asylum' reality exploited
Stranger Things' other controversial location is "Pennhurst Mental Hospital" — a fictional institution inspired by the very real Pennhurst State School and Hospital in Pennsylvania — which Nancy and Robin infiltrate to interview a "crazed" murderer.
The real-life asylum closed in1987 — just a year after the time Stranger Things was set — after decades of legal action over abuse and neglect allegations.
It was a place of segregation, power, abuse, neglect and torture, fuelled by society's perception at the time that people with intellectual disability were a dangerous threat to social order.
But today it is better known as one of the world's most frequented dark tourism attractions and a destination for ghost hunters.
In the 1990s, Dr Joanne Watson worked as a speech pathologist in institutions for people with intellectual disability across several countries.
Watson worked with some of the hospital's former patients, and she says their stories can't be set aside.
"I worked in Pennsylvania in the years following the closure of Pennhurst and got to know the rich and important life stories of many of the people who had called Pennhurst home," she says.
"These people were not ‘criminally insane', they had an intellectual disability. For much of the 20th century people with intellectual disability were seen as a subsection of humanity, that is if they were accepted into the category of human at all."
Australia's own dark past
Australia has its own dark tourism inspired by prisons and asylums, with a long history of colonialism, mistreatment and murder to draw from.
Aradale Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital known for its poor conditions and Victorian approach to mental health. Electro-convulsive therapy and trans-orbital lobotomies were common practice in the facility, in Ararat in western Victoria, including on children.
Today there are historical tours for visitors, though some prefer the ghost tales. Tours boast stories of governors whose spirits are still lurking, prisoners buried in the grounds and the many souls trapped within the walls.
Many people who lived in Aradale now live in group homes in the shadow of the tourist attraction.
"They now live … in smaller institutions we call ‘group homes' or ‘supported accommodation'. What must they make of these tourist attractions?" Watson says.
Dr Mallett believes a line needs to be drawn between tourism and respecting history, because "it's people's suffering that is being celebrated and that is really distasteful".
"[It] lacks a sense of humanity and recognition of those people suffering," Dr Mallett said.
Other sites of trauma have been given a new life by tourism, paying tribute to their dark history by turning them into places of learning where the public can reflect on the past.
One of the country's longest-running prisons, Maitland Gaol, was once home to some of Australia's most infamous criminals including backpacker murderer Ivan Milat and the five men convicted of murdering Anita Cobby.
Today, it serves as a museum where visitors can take tours of the complex guided by former wardens of the prison, ghost and psychic night tours, play laser tag or have a crack at the escape room. It, too, has been used as a movie location.
Like the Maitland site, Parramatta Jail has advertised its space for similar activities. The prison regularly hosts paranormal exhibitions, sleepovers and an inmates guided tour — Australian singer Tex Perkins' even recreated Johnny Cash's 1968 Folsom Prison concert there in 2015.
Perhaps the most recognisable dark tourist location in the country is Port Arthur,
The heritage-listed town is home to one of the best-preserved convict settlements.
It also became the site of the worst massacre in modern Australian memory in 1996, where 35 people were killed and 23 others were wounded.
The Port Arthur massacre site is now a place of reflection, with a monument erected and memorial garden planted to honour the victims.
Dark side of true crime
Mallet says we are often fascinated by the extremes of what people will do to each other and that's part of what compels us to explore dark topics like true crime.
"There's just been an explosion of true crime in all forms and crime tourism is part of that. They get a sense of that horror and that darkness, but there's still a safety in that it didn't happen to them," she says.
"We're kind of teetering on that edge of where true crime is, in entertainment and that's not a positive thing in my opinion.
"I think when it taps into entertainment, that can be problematic … because the stories that people are going to see, you know, they're forgetting that these are people's lives."
Watson enjoys watching Stranger Things with her son, but she says the creators twisted Pennhurst's history, leaving many with a false perception of the real stories of those who had called it home.
"It is offensive because the closure of institutions in the western world are recent, and so many of the people who lived in places like Pennhurst live in the community that now commercially benefits from the dark exploitation of their life stories," she says.
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2022-07-09 19:00:00Z
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