With reference to two horror films of your choice, analyse the ways in which:
1. The films touch upon common ‘archaic’ or ‘uncanny’ themes and/or images in order to evoke
‘universal’ terror responses in their audiences.
2. The films serve as a “barometer” of the societal fears of the times in which they were made.
1. The Uncanny and Archaic fears are both psychoanalytic themes which are presented in horror films, as a way to evoke fear within audiences.
Sigmund Freud, first wrote about the theory of the uncanny in his essay ‘Das Unheimliche’ [1] in 1919. Freud claimed that the uncanny is something normally safe, which becomes foreign and unfamiliar. He expanded from that, saying that the unheimliche (the strange) creates cognitive dissonance and brings back repressed fears and thoughts, linking back to childhood events. By addressing our repressed fears audiences experience catharsis, where they can live out their deepest fears and yet survive.
One film which explores the uncanny is ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999, Daniel Myrick Eduardo Sánchez) [2], a ‘found footage’ film which documents three young filmmakers investigating the legend of the Blair Witch, after a long list of people mysteriously disappear in the woods. In a review for letterboxd.com, Graham Williamson wrote that “plenty of moments […] seem to hint at something of massive occult significance going on out there in the darkness – but it never plays its hand” [3]. The idea of not knowing exactly what is out there in the darkness of the woods, is potentially more unnerving for audiences than just seeing the witch from the beginning. The use of the darkness allows our minds to play tricks on us, to imagine the worst case scenario [4]. Darkness also leaves you feeling vulnerable, the thought that something has the advantage of seeing you, when you can’t see back is enough to frighten most people. In The Blair Witch Project, this vulnerability is only strengthened by the strange occurrences that happen throughout the several nights the film takes place. The sound of children’s laughter is heard echoing throughout the woods. The thought of children being out in the middle of the night in the pitch black forrest is extremely disconcerting, as we understand that this is an unnatural occurrence. From then a series of things begin to happen, including Josh’s disappearance and Heather’s discovery of human teeth, hair, a blood soaked shirt and a piece of human tongue, within a bundle of sticks. We never see what or who is responsible for this, which is what makes it all the more terrifying as it’s left up to the audience to decide who is taunting them. Without the use of the darkness, the filmmakers would unlikely be able to stimulate as much fear in audiences as they did.
Another film which explores uncanny themes is ‘Would You Rather’ [5]. Unable to afford the rising medical bills to treat her brothers leukemia, Iris is introduced to benefactor Shepard Lambrick, who invites her to a dinner party with a catch. If Iris wins the game they will play at dinner, Lambrick promises to locate a bone marrow donor for her brother and will pay for all of his treatments. When Iris arrives at the dinner party it’s revealed they will be playing the parlour game "Would you rather…?", where players are given two choices and they have to pick which they'd prefer. Unfortunately for everyone involved this is not the usual version of the game played at parties, but involves a lot of pain and suffering. In the third round of the game, the remaining players have thirty seconds to choose between being held underwater for two minutes, or a mystery card. Lucas, another one of the players chooses the card and therefore has to lacerate his eyeball with a razor blade. The loss or damaging of eyes is a common theme within the horror genre, and it’s something which Freud has written about in depth. In ‘Das Unheimliche’ Freud states that “A study of dreams, phantasies and myths has taught us that a morbid anxiety connected with the eyes and with going blind is often enough a substitute for the dread of castration”. The castration complex in which Freud is referring to is an “an unconscious anxiety” that resides within males, that their penis will be removed [6]. Looking at this scene in a freudian manner, it would seem like the filmmakers were able to elicit a strong emotional response of fear from the audience, as a reaction to the subconscious anxieties they feel over castration.
Carl Jung believed that horror films explore common primordial themes (archaic fears) from our unconscious mind [7]. These fears tend to be universal, as they toy with our survival instincts, again allowing the audience to have a cathartic release whilst watching the film.
One of the archaic themes which presents itself in both ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Would You Rather’ is the loss of control either of the mind or body. In ‘Would You Rather’ Lambrick is in control of the game and therefore in control of what happens to each character. Although the characters do get a choice in which option they pick, they cannot control what the two options are. Furthermore, if they make the decision not to act on either of the options, then they will get killed. This serves as a warning to the other players, that they must follow the rules, and emphasises that they aren’t in control of their own fate. Loss of control is also presented in The Blair Witch Project, particularly at the very end. After entering the house in the woods, Heather finds Mike facing a corner. It’s suggested that he does this under the influence of the Blair Witch, making her in control of his mind and body. Elliot Cohen wrote in an article for Psychology Today that loss of control is a huge anxiety within our society that stems from a “demand for certainty in a world that is always tentative and uncertain” [8]. This would suggest that filmmakers use the loss of control to evoke fear within audiences, as it’s a primal anxiety that disturbs most people on some level.
In conclusion Archaic and Uncanny themes are present in horror films, in order to elicit a reaction within audiences. These reactions can be cathartic for audience members, and can play on their deepest and most primitive anxieties.
2. Stephen King states that the horror genre will “often serve as an extraordinarily accurate barometer of those things which trouble the night thoughts of a whole society” [9] and this is certainly represented in a wide variety of post 9/11 horror films. The attacks in New York on 9/11 were devastating, and it is inevitable that an event so horrifying would change the fears of society, and therefore begin to shape the ways in which horror films explore societal anxieties.
In ‘Living in Terror Post 9/11 Horror Films’ [10] Amanda Marie Alvarado lists the ways in which Post 9/11 films stand out against other horrors. One of the differences she discusses is that they “abandon the concept of a normal world” which is certainly accurate in the film ‘Hostel’ (Eli Roth, 2005) [11]. Hostel follows two American university students who travel to Slovakia and then are kidnapped by ‘Elite Hunting’ a corporation which auctions off tourists to rich men so they can torture them. Alvarado argues that unlike most horror films which show a “disturbance” of the normality, post 9/11 films present a bleak reality in which “the film is revealing the gruesome nature of the everyday world”. So unlike in films such as ‘Funny Games’ (Michael Haneke, 1997)[12] where the opening sequence presents an affluent family traveling to their holiday home, these films establish the reality of their worlds as dismal and already unfavourable. In Hostel’s opening scene audiences are shown the cleaning process of a what is assumed to be a murder. With blood running down the drains, sharp objects being cleaned, and the dingy set design this world is set up as an extremely unsafe place. Alvarado states that this is a way of teaching audiences “not to invest in the safety of the world, but to fear for the protagonist and essentially to fear for ourselves”.
This grim reality is also presented in the opening of ‘The Village’ (M. Night. Shyamalan, 2004) [13] in which the village is set up as a community which has a vast amount of fear over the surrounding woods. The audience like the residents of the the village are made to fear whatever lurks within them, trusting the elders that there really is something to be afraid of. This is why it is so impactful when it’s revealed that the village (which is set up at the very start to be in the late 1800s) is actually a wildlife preserve which was founded in the 70s, as an escape where members could protect themselves from the dangers of the modern world. This angst is stressed through the use of colour particularly in the opening few scenes of the film. When two girls spot a red plant growing, they quickly pull it up and hide it in the dirt, an odd occurrence which certainly grabs the audiences attention. It is quickly established that red is “the color we fear” and this is shown when the hooded ‘creatures’ enter the village wearing red cloaks and the entire community scatters in sheer panic. In his book ‘Post 9/11 Horror in American Cinema’ [14] Kevin. J. Wetmore states that “red represents a threat of invasion, of imminent attack, of the enemy already among us”. Yellow is also established towards the beginning of the film as it is the colour worn by the villagers who guard the the community and is on banners surrounding the perimeters of the woods. Wetmore claims that “yellow is a protective colour (…) but it, too is involved in the manufacture of fear”. He then links this to the colour-coded terrorism threat scale in which red means a terrorist attack is imminent, and yellow means that the threat is ‘elevated’. These threat levels are quite regularly mentioned by the media, and it has become common for people to check the threat levels of a country before they choose to holiday there. This link could suggest that Shyamalan was referencing the fact that as a society post 9/11 we fear the unpredictability of the modern world, so much so that red is also “the colour we fear” the most, and like in The Village, many people are afraid of travelling outside of their own communities in fear of something terrible happening.
In an article for bloodydisgusting.com, Jonathan Barkan claims that the character of Paxton in Hostel “represents the United States pre, during, and post 9/11” [15]. As a youthful character, he was set up as “innocent” and had a positive outlook on life, he was hopeful and “excited about the future” much like many Americans pre 9/11. Then however, he is brutally beaten and tortured by a foreign businessman. The murderers being from a different country than the American protagonists, may indicate the fear that Americans have over the ‘other’, after the attacks. Despite Paxton escaping from the hostel, Barkan states that “he still couldn’t go back to how he was before. Too much had changed for him” and this is true, the innocence we saw at the beginning of the film has disappeared as shown in the final scene where he runs into one of the businessman who tortured his friend, and drowns him in a toilet. The events of the film have taken a toll on him, and reshaped who he is as a person, just like how the events of 9/11 changed the anxieties that “trouble the night thoughts” of our society. Wetmore’s analysis of the ending is that “Paxton like America, must use violence and torture in response to violence and torture in order to achieve some sense of justice in the world” this could reference to the fact that America went to war with Afghanistan less than 1 month after 9/11, where NATO coalition and American forces attacked the Taliban and Al Qaeda. This shows that not only do horror films represent the terror that we as a society felt surrounding the attacks, but also the feelings of injustice and anger.
In conclusion post 9/11 horror films certainly serve as a “barometer” of our societies anxieties at the time in which they are made, and many modern horrors will play with the fears we have around what happened on 9/11, in order to make audiences as uneasy by the genre as possible.