Maze and horror

I took this picture in Derbyshire and it illustrates tonight's countdown to Halloween post. What you see here is the middle of a maze, or rather the view from the middle of a maze. On face value, a maze is simply a large play area, where finding your way to the center and back is the game. But it has far deeper significance. The maze, any maze, is a potential place of danger. One can get lost in it, who knows what danger, human or not, lurks in it. It is also, symbolically, the human mind, where dark thoughts hide like a minotaur. Who can forget the maze in The Shining? The movie was in my mind the whole time I was walking there. Not the climax, but a scene near the beginning, when Danny and Wendy Torrance explore the maze for the first time. A brilliant piece of foreshadowing and a perfect example of (very subtle) daylight horror. I put it here for your enjoyment: