Psycho was a turning point that began the popularity of portraying psychotic killers who were not merely scientists gone mad but who repeatedly killed for pleasure and whose murders are accounted for almost solely by the fact that they are mentally unstable.
However, with the film emerged mental illness as a prevalent device in the horror movie industry. Psycho was a significant success in the box office and remains a classic in the horror genre. At this point, a change occurs from fearing the external in terms of monsters and creatures of the unknown, to internal threats like the kindly doctor next door. The shift came in the 1960s with the release of the movie Psycho.
Soon came the Cold War-era films, which still featured creatures over humans in the role of the terrifying “bad guy.” This era brought about movies such as The Blob, which continued to propagate the fear of the external monster threat and set a precedent for later negative representations of mental illness in film. This was also the time when the “mad scientist” entered film with characters such as Frankenstein or Jekyll and Hyde. In the early 1930s, horror featured mostly supernatural threats such as mummies, vampires, and werewolves. While antagonists with mental illness are familiar to today’s horror genre, this wasn’t always the case. Over the years, how has horror exploited and stigmatized mental illness? Mental Illness, Horror, and Freud Many shows continue to propagate the myth that the mentally ill are dangerous. Outside of books and comics, popular culture and mainstream media have historically misrepresented mental illness in television and movies. Given the success of the Halloween franchise and countless films in the same vein, it is easy to see audiences have a fascination with mentally unstable characters. Historically, horror movies are filled with scary people who are presented as or described as being mentally ill or even purely evil.
Not so long after, came the anger and furor over how the Joker was portrayed in a series of movies ranging from Suicide Squad to The Joker. Years after the release of these movies, the American Psychiatric Association would level strong criticisms at DC comics for their portrayal of Batman’s ‘rogues gallery” and its misrepresentation of mental illness. In Psycho, Normal Bates channels his mother, and countless Stephen King movies touch on mental illness in some form or another.
The Halloween series begins with Michael Myers escaping the asylum, Jason’s mother in Friday the 13 th speaks in his voice. So many horror movie “bad guys” begin their story in the asylum or exhibiting symptoms of mental illness. One particular element that ties so many of these horror movies together: a history of mental illness that spurs murder, stalking, and terror. Such is the setting for many films within the horror genre.
The camera pans out to center on a lonely, dreary brick building with bars on the windows, locks on the doors, and gated entrances with security guards.