The themes of a breakdown in the integrity of one's self - in either a physical or mental sense - is a recuring one in horror cinema. There are numerous examples of each, such as the deterioration of Seth Brundle as the fly DNA takes an increasingly invasive hold of his body in "The Fly". Or the prospect of a horrible, virulent and fatal disease ravaging your body (and the bodies of those around you) that we see in films like "Cabin Fever." One could probably even argue that scenes of foreign creatures violating your bodily integrity (such as the infant spiders in "The Mist", or "Alien"'s chest bursters) are along the same lines. The reasons this theme is scary are pretty radily apparent; the most basic, primal vessel for the essence of our selves is our physical body. If our bodies are troubled in some fashion (injury, disease, deficiency, whatever), it could be game over for us as mortal beings on all levels. No higher functions are possible if all isn't right with our bodies. Keeping them intact is our most driving instinct. Anything that threatens the integrity of our bodies is therefore terrifying; the worse the threat to the integrity, the worse the fear. The "Cabin Fever" disease scares us a hell of a lot more than a bout of measles, for instance. "Alien" scares us more than, say, a (non-malaria-bearing) mosquito.
But what of the integrity of the mind? It's probably easier to get the visceral reaction you want as a horror director with films about the disintegration or invasion of bodily integrity, so I'd be willing to bet there are more such stories out there (on film, at least). The subtlety and skill it would take to make a believable, understandable film about the breakdown of one's mind are, I'd argue, harder to pull off. So I posit there are fewer of this type of tale around. But is this theme scarier than the violation of bodily integrity?
Are the horrible hallucinations Tim Robbins sees in "Jacob's Ladder" scarier than anything I've mentioned above? Is Jack Torrance's mental breakdown, which causes him to try to hunt down and brutally kill his own wife and child, more disturbing than something so pedestrian as spider eggs hatching inside you (although to be fair, "The Shining" had some haunted house elements added to the mix, but I still think Jack's mental breakdown - aided as it was by the hotel's spooks - was still the central theme)?
I took acid a couple times while I was in college, and the most salient feature to LSD, if you ask me, is the fact that for some reason it disrupts your ability to think clearly. Have you ever tried having a conversation while on acid? Or tried having one w/ someone who was? I wish I had video of the 6 of us tripping out and trying to explain the basics of the theory of evolution to one guy who was just starting to study it in high school, and didn't yet understand it. We were all just a bunch of babbling idiots. You can picture what you mean to say in your head, but can't clearly articulate it. You lose the thread of a thought in mid sentence, and regaining it is just tantalizingly out of reach. It can be very frustrating.
And you can find yourself going down some mysterious paths of thought pushed almost to its logical conclusion in sometimes wonderful, and sometimes terrible, ways (the much feared "bad trip"). Most of the acid you get these days is weaker (comparatively speaking) to the stuff floating around in the 60's. So hallucinations aren't as prominent or intense as they used to be. But the disruption of your cognitive abilities seems to be a constant in all strength levels. I recall thinking: "God, this is scary! I'm glad this is only a temporary condition". You take your ability to reason for granted, and never realize just how important it is to be able to think clearly until you can't do it any more. But these trips gave me just a taste of what insanity must be like; we purposely went somewhere to do this where we wouldn't be around anyone that would get freaked out by our doing it (like a dude's off campus house, or out in the woods or something), and consequently everyone around knew we were doing this, and if anyone started acting weird, would know why. Most also having some experience in this area could also help "down" anyone that was getting too out of hand, keeping freaking out to a minimum. I shudder to think what such a deterioration with a) no definable end in sight, such as the 12 hours or so it takes your body to process a hit of LSD; 2) Often, no definable, tangible cause (this isn't just a drug that's going to pass out of your system eventually; it's for real, and it could be forever); 3) No one along for the ride, or truly understanding of what you're experiencing. When Helen started spouting off about the Candyman, they locked her ass up, sedated her and put her in a strait jacket.
The philosopher Descartes (the guy who coined "I think, therefore I am") posited that all we as humans have to verify anything is what we experience of the world through our senses. Most of us just accept what we see, hear, feel, smell & taste as a given, rarely if ever doubting the evidence of our own senses. But if you suddenly have reason to start doubting that. . . If every basic assumption about your world is suddenly called into question. . . That will rock you to your core, I'd argue. Imagine the terror you'd feel when you're not only seeing the little green men, but you realize no one else can. Do you believe or doubt what you KNOW you're seeing? Is it more comfortable to be chased by monsters no one else can see, or realize you've gone mad? If those are your only alternatives, things have become pretty bleak indeed.
So I guess I come down on the "mental breakdown is scarier" side. Although it's close (the bodily integrity theme can be especially vicious by throwing another fear/phobia into the mix, such as "The Mist" using arachnophobia, or "Cabin Fever" using germophobia. But a mental breakdown promises a longer, more lingering torture in most cases. Horrible as the bodily integrity violations are in the aforementioned films and their ilk, the ends the victims meet are usually quick. You may be locked in that rubber room, alone with your twisted thoughts and the demons no one else can see, for a long, long time.
What's your opinion? We'd like to know.
But what of the integrity of the mind? It's probably easier to get the visceral reaction you want as a horror director with films about the disintegration or invasion of bodily integrity, so I'd be willing to bet there are more such stories out there (on film, at least). The subtlety and skill it would take to make a believable, understandable film about the breakdown of one's mind are, I'd argue, harder to pull off. So I posit there are fewer of this type of tale around. But is this theme scarier than the violation of bodily integrity?
Are the horrible hallucinations Tim Robbins sees in "Jacob's Ladder" scarier than anything I've mentioned above? Is Jack Torrance's mental breakdown, which causes him to try to hunt down and brutally kill his own wife and child, more disturbing than something so pedestrian as spider eggs hatching inside you (although to be fair, "The Shining" had some haunted house elements added to the mix, but I still think Jack's mental breakdown - aided as it was by the hotel's spooks - was still the central theme)?
I took acid a couple times while I was in college, and the most salient feature to LSD, if you ask me, is the fact that for some reason it disrupts your ability to think clearly. Have you ever tried having a conversation while on acid? Or tried having one w/ someone who was? I wish I had video of the 6 of us tripping out and trying to explain the basics of the theory of evolution to one guy who was just starting to study it in high school, and didn't yet understand it. We were all just a bunch of babbling idiots. You can picture what you mean to say in your head, but can't clearly articulate it. You lose the thread of a thought in mid sentence, and regaining it is just tantalizingly out of reach. It can be very frustrating.
And you can find yourself going down some mysterious paths of thought pushed almost to its logical conclusion in sometimes wonderful, and sometimes terrible, ways (the much feared "bad trip"). Most of the acid you get these days is weaker (comparatively speaking) to the stuff floating around in the 60's. So hallucinations aren't as prominent or intense as they used to be. But the disruption of your cognitive abilities seems to be a constant in all strength levels. I recall thinking: "God, this is scary! I'm glad this is only a temporary condition". You take your ability to reason for granted, and never realize just how important it is to be able to think clearly until you can't do it any more. But these trips gave me just a taste of what insanity must be like; we purposely went somewhere to do this where we wouldn't be around anyone that would get freaked out by our doing it (like a dude's off campus house, or out in the woods or something), and consequently everyone around knew we were doing this, and if anyone started acting weird, would know why. Most also having some experience in this area could also help "down" anyone that was getting too out of hand, keeping freaking out to a minimum. I shudder to think what such a deterioration with a) no definable end in sight, such as the 12 hours or so it takes your body to process a hit of LSD; 2) Often, no definable, tangible cause (this isn't just a drug that's going to pass out of your system eventually; it's for real, and it could be forever); 3) No one along for the ride, or truly understanding of what you're experiencing. When Helen started spouting off about the Candyman, they locked her ass up, sedated her and put her in a strait jacket.
The philosopher Descartes (the guy who coined "I think, therefore I am") posited that all we as humans have to verify anything is what we experience of the world through our senses. Most of us just accept what we see, hear, feel, smell & taste as a given, rarely if ever doubting the evidence of our own senses. But if you suddenly have reason to start doubting that. . . If every basic assumption about your world is suddenly called into question. . . That will rock you to your core, I'd argue. Imagine the terror you'd feel when you're not only seeing the little green men, but you realize no one else can. Do you believe or doubt what you KNOW you're seeing? Is it more comfortable to be chased by monsters no one else can see, or realize you've gone mad? If those are your only alternatives, things have become pretty bleak indeed.
So I guess I come down on the "mental breakdown is scarier" side. Although it's close (the bodily integrity theme can be especially vicious by throwing another fear/phobia into the mix, such as "The Mist" using arachnophobia, or "Cabin Fever" using germophobia. But a mental breakdown promises a longer, more lingering torture in most cases. Horrible as the bodily integrity violations are in the aforementioned films and their ilk, the ends the victims meet are usually quick. You may be locked in that rubber room, alone with your twisted thoughts and the demons no one else can see, for a long, long time.
What's your opinion? We'd like to know.
