Horror Films And The Uncanny

An important feature of cultural resistance and alternative identity stems back to the Freud’s concept of “the uncanny.” Basically, Freud conceptualizes that the things we find the most terrifying appear that way because they once seemed familiar. Freud described his theory of the uncanny as ‘arouses dread and horror…certain things which lie within the class of what is frightening.’ Steven Schneider says “defining uncanniness in terms of horror obviously precludes us from defining uncanniness, on pain of circularity” (Schneider, 168). 

Schneider seeks ‘Independent reasons’ for psychoanalysis that explains efficacy of horror to justify the nature of horror film monsters by using Freud’s theory of uncanny (168). For those independent reasons, horror films serve various psychological functions in a society. Horror can work as fantasy or comedy. It promotes emotional catharsis in audiences and, sometimes, suggests them an escape from their boring life. It also provides a safe forum for the expression of socio-cultural fears. 

Freud capitulates the plausibility of German psychologist, Ernst Jentsch, who argues that the essential factor responsible for the production of uncanny feeling is uncertainty, doubts, and confusions in unfamiliar environment; “the more we feel at home in our surroundings, the less you are to feel frightened there” (169). On the other hand, Freud asserts uncertainty may not be a necessary condition for uncanny feelings. He refutes, “what is uncanny is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar” (169). He points out that the uncanny is not alien or nothing unfamiliar but something old-established in one’s mind and which has become “alienated from it” through the process of repression. Freud also identifies repressed infantile wishes as the sole source of uncanny feelings. He argues that:

the return of the repressed constitutes only one class of the uncanny phenomena… the second class of the uncanny [is] constituted by surmounted beliefs that gain some measure of validation in either experienced or depicted reality (172).  

In ‘The Thing’ directed by John Carpenter in 1982, a monster sneaks in the base camp of scientist and destroys them. The monster exists in various forms as it reproduces into the exact same figure of its host. The characters are not able to recognize if his friend, who looks normal and familiar, is infected or not until the monster eventually exposes its creepy features by killing the host. This horrifies the audience as the monster shows the corrupt appearance from the character’s familiar feature. This particular ingenious and shrewd characteristic of the monster makes anxious tension among friends as it breaks their friendship and trust in the film. This causes the characters to distrust and doubt each other. The thing implies that anyone, even a close friend, can always become the monster that harms others. ‘The thing’ is one of the great examples of uncanny monsters, as a person looks familiar with no difference within some time after infection, but there always is a moment when the infected one is finally revealed.

Work Cited

Schneider, Steven. "Monsters as (Uncanny) Metaphors: Freud, Lakoff, and the Representation of Monstrosity in Cinematic Horror." Horror Film Reader. Alain Silver & James Ursini, eds. Limelight Editions, 2000.