"The Return of the Repressed" is a term derived by the Austrian Neurologist Sigmund Freud.
It suggests that repressed elements of the unconscious mind reappear as a behaviour or thought that doesn't go away. The person would be aware of this unconscious thought/idea/feeling and would stop at nothing to prevent it, but it surfaces nevertheless, disguised as something insignificant. Dreams also have a part to play in the theory and Freud believed that dreams gave an insight into a persons unconscious desires.
This theory helped film makers come up with brand new ideas in horror as it sparked the use of humans as the evil characters, and not just monsters and aliens. They saw that people would see the realistic side of it as well as the horrific. For the film makers who had the ideas, they could now broaden their minds and come up with more horrific and distressing ideas to do with us as humans.
The fact that people in real life could have these disgusting and inhuman thoughts makes the films that bit more scary. In reality, people do kill, rape, torture, kidnap, burn, and even in some cases, eat other humans, and the thoughts going through their minds would go through exactly the same process as the people in the movies.
Here are a few examples of movies where the villains are psychologically damaged...
Creep (Craig), The Dark Knight (The Joker), Psycho (Norman Bates), Hannibal (Hannibal Lector)
It suggests that repressed elements of the unconscious mind reappear as a behaviour or thought that doesn't go away. The person would be aware of this unconscious thought/idea/feeling and would stop at nothing to prevent it, but it surfaces nevertheless, disguised as something insignificant. Dreams also have a part to play in the theory and Freud believed that dreams gave an insight into a persons unconscious desires.
This theory helped film makers come up with brand new ideas in horror as it sparked the use of humans as the evil characters, and not just monsters and aliens. They saw that people would see the realistic side of it as well as the horrific. For the film makers who had the ideas, they could now broaden their minds and come up with more horrific and distressing ideas to do with us as humans.
The fact that people in real life could have these disgusting and inhuman thoughts makes the films that bit more scary. In reality, people do kill, rape, torture, kidnap, burn, and even in some cases, eat other humans, and the thoughts going through their minds would go through exactly the same process as the people in the movies.
Here are a few examples of movies where the villains are psychologically damaged...
Creep (Craig), The Dark Knight (The Joker), Psycho (Norman Bates), Hannibal (Hannibal Lector)
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