Psychology technique · used in 5 films
Turning things that happen inside the mind, like buried memories or a split sense of self, into real events in the story. The horror comes from the mind being invaded.
Examples
Ingmar Bergman · 1968
Johan's fears come to life as people. The guests at the castle are the creatures he has been drawing in his sketchbook. His mind is the haunted house, and there is no way to leave it.
Where to see it: The castle party: at the castle, the guests turn out to be the demons Johan has described.
William Friedkin · 1973
The demon possessing Regan acts out a Freudian nightmare in the open. A child's body expresses adult sexuality and violence, the mother is helpless and the father is absent. The horror becomes a portrait of a family home under attack.
Where to see it: Regan's transformation scenes. The demon speaks through her body in a voice full of repressed adult knowledge that a 12-year-old should not have.
Jennifer Kent · 2014
The Babadook grows as Amelia's exhaustion and buried anger grow. Her husband's things are locked in the basement, the place she won't go. In the end, she keeps the monster locked in the basement and feeds it.
Where to see it: The final scene. Amelia carries a bowl of worms down to the basement, and something in the dark takes it. Then she goes back upstairs to Sam's birthday party.
Jordan Peele · 2017
The Sunken Place turns dissociation (feeling cut off from yourself) into a physical place. Chris is awake but trapped behind his own eyes and can't act. It's a metaphor for the psychological powerlessness racism produces.
Where to see it: Missy's hypnosis session in her sitting room, late at night. This is how Chris gets there.
Joachim Trier · 2017
Thelma's powers come from her buried guilt and desire. What she feels about Anja and what she did to her baby brother become real events. The horror is her own mind turned outward.
Where to see it: The brain scan: while doctors test her seizures, Thelma thinks of Anja, and Anja vanishes.
Questions
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