As it turns out, the walls of Samaris are nothing more than clockwork and stage sets. Our hero discovers this in spectacular fashion. That box in the first panel is actually his hotel room, lifted into place. There are a number of metaphors at work in this piece, but the most obvious is the idea that the world (or this corner of it, at least) is not as advertised. That there is a backstage area that we are not usually privy too and, when we stumble upon it unsupervised, it can be very frightening.

(Heavy Metal issue #95, February 1985 – Page 13 The Walls of Samaris by Schuiten)