In both of these movies the fear takes the form of a phyiscal monster whether it is material or not isn’t as important as the fact that we still see them, and experience them chasing said characters around the room in a way not too different from a dozen other – though admittedly maybe less subtle – horrors. Ok, so maybe it is a type of film that extrapolates fear from a character’s warped frame of mind? You know, like Jacob’s Ladder or Black Swan? Welcome to any genre piece that has a three dimensional character. Does it apply to movies designed to get under the audience’s skin? That could be said about any genre piece – most horror films are, by their nature, psychological. Ultimately though, the all too vague phrase is almost entirely meaningless. From Silence of the Lambs to The Shining it has been regularly used by non-genre critics to illuminate diamonds in the rough, becoming almost synonymous with ‘good’ horror films. More often than not it gets used in an elitist fashion so as to elevate a particular piece above the percieved confines of the genre that it’s so clearly a part of. ‘Psychological horror’ (aka ‘psychological thriller with supernatural overtones’) may be among the most overused phrases from the general film critic’s vocabulary. Starring: Cynthia Preston, David Hewlett, Terry O'Quinn Written by: Andrew Neiderman, Sandor Stern
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