WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR?

- “Psychological horror,” Wikipedia, Accessed November 09, 2021. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_horror.

2. Ballon, Bruce and Molyn Leszcz. “Horror Films: Tales to Master Terror Or Shapers of Trauma?” American Journal of Psychotherapy 61, no. 2 (2007): 211-30. https://www.proquest.com/scholarlyjournals/horror-films-tales-master-terror-shapers-trauma/docview/213111589/se-2?accountid =12261.

The authors, Ballon and Leszcz, discuss and reflect on cinematic neurosis while reviewing cinematic-related psychiatric case reports. Ballon and Leszcz use the horror movie, “The Exorcist”, as one of their main examples to explain how horror films could act as a stressor for cases of cinematic neurosis. They presented the case of a twenty-two-year-old woman (Ms X) who “presented intrusive thoughts of demonic possession and flashbacks of the film”. This particular movie is also used to explain how real-life events can be embedded in a movie’s narrative (e.g. characters, symbols, etc.) and how these elements could act as a trauma to the audience while taking into consideration the person’s personality structure and experience with stress.

Through this text, Ballon and Leszcz offer insights into case studies and get straight to the point by referencing relevant clinical cases and studies because the goal of this text is to report and discuss the symptoms caused by the trauma of watching a horror film. This text is considered to be a scholarly source, therefore, it is an informative text and a very useful source because of its objectivity and credibility.

Cases mentioned in this text could be very valuable for a project which explores human behaviours after watching horror films. Several ideas mentioned, such as how the home is the setting of the movie and how a lot of horror film narratives “set up basic oppositions within”, would help generate ideas on how to break the archetypes of horror films. This text also provides important and helpful information on the movie “The Exorcist” that could assist in expanding ideas and concepts while working on this project. The real-life example mentioned in this source could lead to new ideas for the plot of a short psychological horror film and allow me to think about the reactions I hope to get after screening this short film.

“Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subgenre of psychological thriller, and often uses mystery elements and characters with unstable, unreliable, or disturbing psychological states to enhance the suspense, drama, action, and paranoia of the setting and plot and to provide an overall unpleasant, unsettling, or distressing atmosphere.”