The Horror Aesthetics of Infinite Loops: An Experiment with "Hotel Corridor" in Generative AI Video Creation

This article introduces the "Hotel Corridor" (The Hotel Loop) project, a horror video experiment created using generative AI technology. Through the infinitely looping hotel corridor scene, it explores the unique potential of AI in creating suspenseful atmospheres, visual narratives, and expressions of horror aesthetics. The project is not only a technical demonstration but also an artistic exploration of space, time, and fear, showcasing the creative possibilities of human-AI collaboration.

Horror art is an expression of human primitive emotional experiences. In the digital age, generative AI has become a new medium. The "Hotel Corridor" project chose the hotel corridor as its core scene because it has spatial contradiction (a transitional non-owned space in a safe residence), visual repetition (suitable for looping), psychological oppression (narrow and enclosed), and cultural resonance (accumulated from classic horror works like The Shining). The loop structure in horror narratives symbolizes loss of time control, dissolution of hope, accumulation of details, and psychological wear and tear.

The project's technical process includes scene concept design, keyframe generation, video interpolation, loop point processing, and atmosphere enhancement. To maintain visual coherence, strategies such as seed locking, prompt engineering, segmented generation, and post-production repair are adopted. AI expresses horror atmosphere through light and shadow contrast (low-angle light sources, long shadows), color psychology (desaturated tones, cyan-orange contrast), compositional tension (asymmetry, guide lines pointing to the unknown), and detail hints (blurred figures, half-open door gaps, etc.).

In the project, AI acts as a partner with unexpected creativity, bringing unpredictability, style fusion, efficiency improvement, and democratization of creation. The project reflects the digital trends of horror aesthetics: from narrative to experience (immersive atmosphere), from complete to fragmented (in line with short video habits), from viewing to participation (audiences actively looking for differences), and from professional to mass (lowering production thresholds).

In the content creation field, it can be applied to independent horror short films, game scene design, immersive installation art, and social media short videos. The core loop video technology can also be reused in meditation and relaxation scenes, dynamic wallpapers, brand visuals, and music visualization, etc.

Insights for creators include: embracing the uncertainty of AI and turning accidents into features; valuing atmosphere over complex narratives (atmosphere is more eye-catching in the fragmented era); loops are not only technical means but also core metaphors (philosophical implications of themes like being trapped and repetition).

The "Hotel Corridor" project demonstrates the great potential of generative AI in artistic creation and is a model of human-AI collaboration. AI lowers technical thresholds, but creative value is eternal—AI generates images, while humans give them emotion and soul. The project explores the depths of space, time, fear, and beauty, providing a new direction for the development of horror art in the digital age.