Oct 23: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Synopsis

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a slasher film set in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio. The plot revolves around Alice and her teenage friends who are stalked and killed in their dreams by the omnipresent, blade-gloved Freddy Krueger. The reason behind Freddie’s rampage lies in the parents’ sinister secret from years ago.

The greatness of Craven’s film is that the identification with the characters doesn’t end with the movie’s final scene. Instead, it continues following the movie. As anyone whose had a nightmare after watching this film will attest, it’s the moment after you wake up from the terrifying dream that is potentially horrifying, as it is then that you’re put in the exact same position as the main characters.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

As the title implies, A Nightmare on Elm Street (Nightmare) depicts Nightmare Disorder (ND); repeated awakenings with recollection of terrifying dreams, usually involving threats to survival such as being hunted by a child murderer. Upon awakening from her nightmares, Alice is alert and able to recall the dream in detail. These details differentiate ND from Sleep Terror Disorder. With sleep terrors, there is no detailed recall of the dream. While the above sleep disorders (parasomnias) are in the differential diagnosis for what ails the teenagers in the film, so too is a dyssomnia.

Dyssomnias are disturbances in the quality, amount, or timing of sleep. While a discussion of sleep stages is beyond the scope of this blog, the movie is about a recurrent nightmare (REM sleep) that invades the teenagers’ wakeful states. In this way, Nightmare is a metaphor for a dyssomnia defined by REM invasion into the beta state (wakefulness), specifically, Narcolepsy. Narcolepsy usually has its onset in adolescence (e.g. Alice), is characterized by hallucinations (seeing the boogeyman), and is genetically predisposed. Metaphorically, Alice and her friends carry the (genetic) burden of their parents.

While it is established that Freddie Krueger was a child murderer, the backstory is that he’s afflicted with Pedophilic Disorder. His having a paraphilia provides depth to Nancy’s character. Tina, Glen, and Rod are all murdered in bed, the location being symbolic of Freddie’s sexual disorder. While the history of Freddie as a child murderer is ultimately provided by her mother, Nancy’s discovery is metaphorical of the recovery of her lost memories. When Freddie is pursuing her, she runs to the basement of her home which looks distorted, a product of derealization likely due to anxiety. One focus of Nightmare is the distinction between dreams and reality. Given the film’s ability to transgress “the boundaries between the imaginary and real,” Nancy’s experience in the basement may be a nightmare (sleep) or a flashback

(wakefulness) that is cued by the situation. Specifically, she was likely imprisoned in Freddie’s boiler room (basement). Unlike the other characters, Nancy is “kept alive” by Freddie, and slowly learns the truth/etiology about her nightmares. Freddie considered her special in some respect. Nancy’s mother, Marge, kept Freddie’s hat and glove; bizarre behavior if Freddie was “just a child murderer.” Years prior, Marge likely had an affair with Fred Krueger (which would be consistent with her having separated from her husband in present day), but had a blind eye to her boyfriend’s conduct towards her daughter. Alice and her friends are victims of the sins of their parents.

Nightmare then is not merely about Sleep and Awake Disorders such as Nightmare Disorder or Narcolepsy. Alice’s sleep pathology is likely due to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, having been a victim of childhood sexual abuse.

Oct 8: The Thing (1982)

SYNOPSIS

At the Amundsen’Scott South Pole Station, most personnel leave by the middle of February, leaving a few dozen “winter-overs” (mostly support staff plus a few scientists) who keep the station functional through the months of Antarctic night. The winter personnel are isolated between mid-February and late October. After the last flight has left for the winter, an annual tradition is a double feature viewing of The Thing and The Shining.

So, following yesterday’s blog on The Shining, its only right to examine John Carpenter’s The Thing next. Based on John W. Campbell, Jr.’s novella, Who Goes There?, the movie is about a parasitic , extraterrestrial lifeform that assimilates organisms at the molecular level, thus allowing it to mimic the host phenotypically.

Set in Antarctica, The Thing begins with a Norwegian helicopter pursuing an Alaskan malamute to an American research station. When the last surviving Norwegian is shot and killed, the Americans go to the Norwegian base only to find it burned to the ground. MacReady and the crew learn that the Malamute was alien, and before they could kill it, the thing begins to assimilate the other dogs and members of the research team.

Considered by Carpenter to be the first part of an apocalyptic trilogy along with Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness, The Thing pays homage to Dracula, depicting the trials of MacReady (modern day Van Helsing), who leads the team as they try to capture and kill the inhuman scourge before it can hibernate and move beyond the continent.

THE PSYCHIATRY OF THE THING

We discover that the thing was trying to freeze itself and hibernate, thus introducing the notion of dyssomnias; sleep abnormalities in the amount, quality, or timing of sleep involving abnormalities in mechanisms generating sleep-wake states (as opposed to parasomnias which are abnormal behaviors occurring in association with/around the time of sleep such as sleep walking). One dyssomnia, Non-24 Hour Sleep-Wake Type (a Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorder), is characterized by abnormal synchronization between the 24-h light-dark cycle and the endogenous circadian rhythm. Given that a) the setting of the film is the Antarctic night, b) the alien’s circadian rhythm is longer than 24 hours, c) the alien needs to hibernate, The Thing may be viewed as an exercise in the Sleep-Wake Disorders.

The Thing can also be interpreted as a case study of “mass paranoia;” with imminent danger behind every familiar face, the film oscillates between hypervigilance and Shared Psychotic Disorder. For example, Blair becomes increasingly paranoid, calculating that if the alien escapes Antarctica, all life on earth will be assimilated within a few years.
In the final scene, MacReady and Childs watch the camp burn and acknowledge the futility of their distrust and share a bottle of scotch. The ambiguous ending is clarified 30 years later by Joss Whedon; in The Cabin in the Woods, the scene revealing the “Fail” in Sweden most likely reveals the cataclysmic outcome of The Thing.