R. D. Laing
How and Why Does The Horror/Thriller Genre Exaggerate the Mentally Ill in Films Such as ‘Shutter Island’ and ‘The Uninvited’?
Ever since it was possible to produce devices that inform an audience such as newspapers and radio, audiences have been surrounded by misconceptions and exaggeration of groups of people, such as the mentally ill through the media. Whether this is through propaganda of groups of people or whether it is on our televisions at home, it is apparent that the media enforce stereotypical ideologies of society, more so thought to be negative. What many do not realise is what consists in film may not be a true reflection of reality, as the media are often criticised for their portrayal of those of mental illness and ‘are believed to play a major role in contributing to mental illness stigma’ .The horror and thriller genres have been an area of question, as although most narratives are in fact based solely on fiction, does this mean that their characters can be just as misconstrued? It is thought that ‘fictional film characters with mental conditions generally tend to fit into one of several extreme stereotypes, used to either shock, amuse or otherwise entertain us’ . Films such as Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010, USA) and Hide and Seek (John Polson, 2005, USA) portray a highly stereotypical view of those with mental illness, which raises the question of what encourages the horror genre to create such exaggerated roles.
Genre is thought to be ‘a type of cultural road-map, unproblematically defined and available to `frame' any particular film.’ The horror genre’s aim is nothing more than to simply frighten and in some mild form attempt to disturb its viewers, and yet it is still so popular, with Shutter Island becoming the second top grossing horror film of 2010 (earning a Gross amount of $128,012,934) , and is also sometimes favoured over other genres such as comedy and drama that primarily focus on the ‘feel good’ factor. ‘One theory is that horror films touch on emotions that other films do not’ , it simply gives the audience the ability to experience a thrill of emotion in the comfort of their own home, in terms of psychographics, catering for the ‘explorer’ audience. In some horror films, such as Cube (Vincenzo Natali, 1997, USA) it does not follow the generic narrative theory suggested by Todorov. It is thought that most film narratives “begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in a chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of fiction” . Cube on the other hand starts with the disequilibrium as the characters, among them a male who is mentally ill, are placed in an unknown setting (a cube) with people that they have never met before, then they try to work towards the new equilibrium which is trying to get out of the cube. This not only proves that the horror genre do not follow typical conventions of other genres, but it also goes to the extreme of trying to disrupt and push the audience to its limits of shock.
As well as giving unusual yet enjoyable experiences for its viewers, a large part of the genre is audience expectations. The horror genre in particular is very ‘formulaic, they contained conventions and they were repetitive. Consequently, they could easily be recycled over and over again, promising standardised consistency. Once a formula had been tried and tested, it was hoped that future success could be granted’ , as long as audiences were pleased the first time round, it was a guarantee that films following the same conventions were going to be successful. Hence, why big institutions such as Paramount Pictures, rely on those formulas that have been predominantly successful, and do not branch out or break the genre barriers. Therefore, in terms of representing a certain group in one particular way throughout the genre, such as those with mental illness who are repeatedly used, is primarily because those characters have been successful with the audience.
In films, such as Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960, USA) and Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978, USA), the horror genre were starting to branch out into consisting of characters that suffered from a mental illness within film, yet although they were a major part of the storyline they did not have large screen time or a heavy script, for example in Halloween, the most we see is the silhouette or shadow of the killer. Alternatively in Shutter Island, the character of ‘Rachel Solando’ (a patient at mental institution), has more dialogue, is presented in a low key lighting, with this scene totally surrounded by her and her story. The props used in this scene would disturb its audience, through the dirty clothing that she is wearing and the lack of shoes which is thought to be a necessity for the everyday human to wear. One theory to this change within the horror genre, and making it more frightening is desensitisation, where ‘people are exposed to so much violence in the media, violence no longer makes a strong emotional impact upon them.’ As the horror genre has developed, it has developed along with its audience catering for their need of level of horror or thrill, hence why the characterisation of the mentally ill has expanded, as the horrors the audience seek have grown. This characterisation has not only gone into depth of the character, but now the character possess high stereotypical ideologies as well, although there are some realism to these, they are only in extreme cases of the mentally ill, but in most horror films this is the only portrayal society sees. Using these ideologies therefore fulfils the purpose of the horror genre as it is ‘designed to scare and disgust viewers with evil characters, plots and events that can range from realistic to completely supernatural' , so using these extreme characters, it meets the criteria of the horror genre, fulfilling audiences needs and expectations.
The media have been accused, for a long time of influencing audiences through their extreme content, such as violence. It is argued that 'film has the power to influence people's beliefs on a mass scale’ not just in social issues but also on how they live their lives on a day to day basis, perhaps changing values and beliefs. It is also thought that a reason for this is that of the cultivation theory, thought to be ‘the combined effect of massive television exposure by viewers over time subtly shapes the perception of social reality for individuals and, ultimately, for our culture as a whole’ , in other words where the audience have been exposed to a certain belief over a long period of time, they start believing the same principle. Therefore, if an audience is exposed to the same ideology such as, that all those with mental health problems cannot live among those who are sane, then society will start believing this. Consequently, ‘it can be argued that filmmakers have a responsibility to present such portrayals more accurately and conscientiously’ , yet some filmmakers and institutions can argue that, how can a genre fulfil its purpose if it does not have a sense of realism, even if that means using extreme characters, that do not necessarily reflect real life. This theory can be enforced through the mediated content that is distributed by certain institutions, for example, Paramount Pictures have distributed films such as, Shutter Island, The Uninvited (Charles Guard & Thomas Guard, 2009, USA), My Bloody Valentine (George Mihalka, 1981, USA) that have been mediated to show that the mentally ill are nothing but mere violent individuals that cannot live ‘normal’ lives. Alternatively, it can be argued that even though these institutions portray these stereotypical characters, as active viewers we do not fully engage and completely consume these ideologies, thus making it feasible for these institutions to create such roles. Instead, audiences may in fact take oppositional readings from these ideologies and may believe the opposite of what the institutions are distributing.
Stereotypes of the mentally ill usually consist of their incapability to live among the sane, that they are dangerous and more likely to commit crimes, and those ‘labelled mentally ill experience negative societal reactions.' Some studies have shown that ‘60% of Americans believed patients with schizophrenia - a condition characterized by disordered thought processes, paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations - were likely to commit violent acts’ , from the American Journal of Public Health. This is shown in the narrative of The Uninvited where, the protagonist of the film believes that she sees her family members alive and healthy, yet as the film progresses we find that she has killed her family. This enforces the idea that those with mental illness cannot live a ‘normal’ life as they are prone to commit such crimes. The idea connoted by these texts may be an example of the hypodermic needle theory, which is thought to be ‘a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver’ , this theory suggests that all media audiences are passive, therefore ‘the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message.’ Through time it is thought because of these stereotypes; those with mental illness have received a large amount of stigma primarily because ‘the mass media, including television and broadcast news, are the primary source of information about mental illness’ and those with mental illness are thought to ‘delay seeking treatment or to conceal the illness in an attempt to escape the shame and isolation of being labelled 'disturbed' and 'other'' . Having these labels on a specific group puts a divide between the mentally ill and the sane, the idea of ‘us’ and ‘them’. This idea, therefore has created moral panic, which is the ‘worry about the values and principles which society upholds which may be in jeopardy’ , it is also thought, by Stanley Cohen, that the mass media stylises these ideologies, ‘amplifying the nature of the facts and consequently turning them into a national issue, when the matter could have been contained on a local level’ , thus creating the idea that perhaps the mass media have done this to ensure popularity, meaning more profit across films that include story lines with mental illness.
What is also apparent in today’s society is that everyone has become psychologised, that psychological jargon is used in everyday language, and there is no doubt that any abnormal behaviour can be labelled as some type of illness. It is thought by Will Davies that ‘Psychology as the new zeitgeist has been a long time coming’ , that society nowadays are so complied with psychology that it is inevitable that this will be apparent in modern film. He also suggests that many thoughts of those with mental illness may be due to us as an audience, that ‘we have to learn the limits of psychology from politics to popular culture, and new ways we can think and act rather than just as individuals and consumers all the time’ . He believes that it is up to us how we should perceive a text, and even though we are in a growing pluralist society, we should be more assertive and become even more of a pluralist consumer of the media. Therefore it could be argued that one of the reasons for these genres to portray such characters is to reflect not the ideology of the characters themselves, but to reflect the culture of society.
Overall, it is thought that the horror/thriller genre does enforce stereotypical ideologies of the mentally ill and also uses such extreme characteristics of them, but does this to shock or entertain its audience, sticking to the boundaries of its genre. Over time, especially the horror genre has moved with the times, such as creating more of a main and exaggerated role for those characters with mental illness, catering for the audience in terms of the level of shock they desire. This consequently results in the audiences believing these ideologies that are media put forth by the media, using theories such as the cultivation and hypodermic needle to explain this. Therefore this produces stigma against those with mental illness and also creating moral panic, thus making horror and thriller films more popular leading to producing more films about mental illness, creating more revenue for institutions. It is also thought that 'media presentations about mental illness matched neither the views of the public nor those of mental health professionals' , therefore it has nothing to do with informing its audience but to merely entertain, and perhaps in some form mock today’s culture- in terms of our constant need to diagnose an illness of some sort.
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Films
Cube. Dir. Vincenzo Natali. Perf. Nicole de Boer, Maurice Dean Wint, David Hewlett. Lions Gate, 1997. DVD.
Halloween. Dir. John Carpenter. Perf. Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran. Starz / Anchor Bay, 1978. DVD.
Shutter Island. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo. Paramount, 2010. DVD.
The Uninvited. Dir. Charles Guard. Perf. Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, Elizabeth Banks. Dreamworks Video, 2009. DVD.
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McQuail, Denis & Sven Windahl (1993): Communication Models for the Study of Mass Communication. London: Longman
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