![]() The word “Creature” itself connotes the idea of something subhuman or something that is animalistic in nature. This causes her mind to draw a direct connection between her own body and the violence in her past. This being is a manifestation of the guilt she is unable to repress, as a result of the trauma that the scars on her body remind her of. As a result of her leaving behind another girl during her escape, her mind manifests her guilt in the form of a mutilated being known as “Creature” in the film’s credits. As a result of the trauma caused by her imprisonment and torture, Lucie, one of the films primary protagonists, has been unable to repress her memories and instincts. In the 2008 film Martyrs, we see a different representation of the failure of repression in the effect that trauma has on the psyche. This connection between the chaos of comedy and the violence and uncertainty of fear encapsulates the Freudian concept of the id. There is a duality to the image of the clown as it is at once a comedic image and one that causes fear in many people. The clown costume holds significance in that the image of a clown represents chaos for the sake of entertainment. We see Michael’s perspective as he takes the clown mask and kills his naked sister who just engaged in sexual intercourse. Early in the film, he is displaying all the instinctual rage of the id in performing the murder of his sister. This is the first instance of the failure of repression within a horror film, as Halloween presents a character who is unable to stem the flow of his rage and is also unable to understand the desires he feels to force the values of society upon the youth within the film.Īs a result of this, Michael Meyers is the physical embodiment of both the id and the super ego. ![]() ![]() Based on Freud’s theory of personality, Michael lacks the ego as a means of mediating between his super ego, the moral and societal values, and his id, the pure instinctual rage within his mind. Where a child might develop the dam of repression thanks to the combination of nature and nurture, Michael lacks the ability to discern right from wrong, good from evil. Considering the environmental factors during this opening scene, such as well-dressed parents and a large, well-kept house in a suburban neighborhood, I would argue that Michael’s lack of repression is born out of his more powerful naturally murderous instincts. ![]() In Halloween we see the character of Michael Meyers, the films primary antagonist, as a child, acting out his most violent impulses in murdering his sister. Freud argues that these “mental forces” are “fixed by heredity” and that the conflict between these natural instincts and external factors such as “education”, is the cause of repression. I will also explore the relationship between the audience and the horror film as a way of understanding its role as a doorway into the repressed desires and instincts of both its characters and its audience and will discuss the idea that the horror film as it exists in the real world represents a failure of repression, as it operates as a window into the repressed desires of the film watcher.įreud argues that during a “period of total or only partial latency” early in childhood psychosexual development, certain “mental forces which are later to impede the course of the sexual instinct” are built up. In order to do this, I will be looking at various Freudian concepts relating to ideas of childhood development, the psychosexual stages and trauma, by applying this to the slasher film Halloween (1978) and the New French Extremist film Martyrs (2008). Over the course of this essay, I intend to argue that horror films show various representations of the failure of repression as a means to control instincts and desires through sublimation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |