Date of Award
Spring 5-2015
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Theatre
First Advisor
John Warrick
Advisor Department
Theatre
Abstract
The horror movie genre has a history of developing stories that use both empathy and fear to reflect upon timeless cultural concerns. Guillermo del Toro’s works, The Devil’s Backbone, The Orphanage, and Mama, are contemporary examples of this formula at work. In this project, I intend to examine the sociality of these films according to the psychological theories of Freud’s “Uncanny” and Todorov’s “Fantastic.” Through these concepts, del Toro and his collaborators fashioned the issue of social isolation in a variety of ways to sculpt villains, victims, and families into entities that engender both our compassion and our disgust. By utilizing supernatural elements, they rivet the viewer’s attention onto issues that, though not supernatural themselves, are every bit as disturbing because they force us to reconsider the world within which we live.
Copyright
Copyright for this thesis is owned by the author. It may be freely accessed by all users. However, any reuse or reproduction not covered by the exceptions of the Fair Use or Educational Use clauses of U.S. Copyright Law or without permission of the copyright holder may be a violation of federal law. Contact the administrator if you have additional questions.
Recommended Citation
Cathcart, Abigail M., "An Outsider Amongst Outsiders: Psychosocial Impact of The Devil’s Backbone, The Orphanage, and Mama" (2015). Honors Theses. 320.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/320