Top row, left to right: Black Box, Castle Freak, Color Out of Space, Come Play, The Current Occupant
Middle row: The Dark and the Wicked, His House, Relic, Run, Sightless
Bottom row: The Siren, Spiral
AnDread briefly reviews horror movies from 2020 that feature disability and discusses common themes such as trauma, grief, family dysfunction, independence, delusion, paranoia, and diversity within disability representation. Show Notes available at freaksandpsychospodcast.com/episode008
- Intro
- Apologies for lateness
- Thanks to those providing feedback, in conversations to be a guest
- Announcement: No longer strictly following alternating format of classic/contemporary/themed but will still mix it up
- Letterboxd Disability in 2020 Horror List
- Common themes of disability in horror for 2020:
- Different forms of mental disability highly dominant
- Trauma, grief, confronting the past
- Family dysfunction, neglect, and love
- The loss of independence related to the loss of identity
- Delusion, paranoia, and difficulty grasping reality
- Diverse representations – women, people of color, and queer people – not just straight white guys with disabilities
- Black Box 11:14
- Streaming on Amazon Prime
- Directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr., co-written with Stephen Herman
- One of 4 films in the Welcome to the Blumhouse series
- Black Box follows a man with memory loss who struggles to cope with the death of his wife and take care of his young daughter, who often has to take care of him. He’s desperate to get his life together so he agrees to some very experimental treatments to regain his memory, which seem promising at first, but start to reveal disturbing secrets.
- You’ll want to know as little as possible going into this one
- All pretty good actors, predominantly black cast
- Sci-fi and mystery feel
- Fear that losing memories means losing identity
- Not just stigmatizing memory loss – suggests desperation for cures and medical treatment can do more harm than good
- Color Out of Space 17:11
- Streaming on Shudder
- Directed by Richard Stanley, co-written with Scarlett Amaris, adapted from the H. P. Lovecraft story of the same name
- A meteor crashes onto a farm, spreading a deadly and mysterious color throughout the land, animals, and family living there
- It’s one of the most faithful Lovecraft adaptations – updated for the twenty-first century
- Disability is theme rather than any single character – decay and madness
- The Current Occupant 21:00
- Streaming on Hulu
- Directed by Julius Ramsay, written by Alston Ramsay
- Part of Blumhouse’s Into the Dark series
- A man in a psychiatric hospital believes that he is the President of the United States, but his memory is fragmentary, so we don’t know whether he’s right or just delusional.
- Touches on fears about memory loss and psychosis—not being able to tell fact from fiction—as well as the indignities and cruelties of psychiatric facilities
- The Dark and the Wicked 25:23
- Not free but available to rent
- Directed and written by Bryan Bertino
- Two siblings return to their parents’ farm as their father is dying from a mysterious illness and their mother acts in increasingly bizarre ways. A malevolent and possibly demonic force gradually engulfs their lives.
- Sad story of aging, grief, and neglect
- Disability component is thematic, decay and madness
- Not entirely sure how to interpret plot but has great atmosphere
- His House 29:12
- Streaming on Netflix
- Directed and written by Remi Weekes
- Called “The Get Out for the refugee experience”
- Two refugees flee Sudan to gain asylum in England. Placed in a decrepit house, they struggle with fitting in to English culture while a supernatural presence in the house forces them to confront their pasts.
- This is a very powerful film with strong political themes and also some genuinely creepy moments
- Metaphor but also real horror
- Exploration of PTSD, grief, and immigrant experience
- Mostly black cast
- Relic 32:50
- Not free but available to rent
- Directed by Natalie Erika James, co-written with Christian White
- Three generations – grandmother, daughter, granddaughter – come together as the grandmother’s dementia manifests in increasingly bizarre and dangerous ways.
- Common theme of past coming back to not only haunt but consume
- Slow gothic burn
- Poignant ending with strong body horror moment
- Memory loss, neglect, loss of identity, helplessness, power of love in face of severe disability
- Run 37:48
- Streaming on Hulu
- Directed by Aneesh Chaganty and co-written with Sev Ohanian
- A paralyzed teenager about to go off to college uncovers disturbing secrets about her mother that lead to confrontation.
- Don’t want to say much – will cover soon with guest
- Great suspense, performances by Kiera Allen (actual wheelchair user) and Sarah Paulson
- Themes of independence, transition, and caregiver abuse
- The Siren 41:02
- Streaming on Shudder
- Directed and written by Perry Blackshear
- A mute man falls in love with a russalka, a female spirit trapped in a body of water, while his neighbor believes that she murdered his husband.
- Enjoyed the movie but muteness is only one aspect, not necessarily focus, perhaps tied to this spirit/creature wanting someone who listens
- Light on horror, horror/drama but done well
- LGBTQ representation
- Spiral 43:00
- Streaming on Shudder
- Directed by Kurtis David Harder, written by Colin Minihan and John Poliquin
- A gay couple moves into a small town with their 16-year-old daughter and everyone seems very accepting. But one of them begins to suspect their neighbors have ulterior motives.
- LGBTQ representation
- PTSD – one is witness to hate crime
- Psychosis and paranoia
- Can queer families co-exist with heteronormative ones or only through assimilation?
- Sightless 45:58
- Available for rent
- Directed and written by Cooper Karl
- After an attack renders her blind, a woman withdraws from the world to recover. But soon she plunges into paranoia, unable to convince anyone that her assailant has returned to terrorize her by hiding in plain sight.
- Not recommended
- Might seem like it takes the idea of Hush and does it for blindness
- But taps into fear that losing sight means you can’t trust perceptions
- Very trope-heavy
- Angry newly disabled person
- Blind person touching another’s face
- Blind person easily deceived by others
- Blind musician
- Castle Freak 51:48
- Streaming on Shudder
- Remake of Stuart Gordon film from 1995
- Directed by Tate Steinsiek, written by Kathy Charles
- Not recommended
- Letterboxd review
- Unseen films 56:00
- Come Play: An autistic boy and his parents are threatened by an evil presence that comes from his smart phone
- Dementer: After fleeing a backwoods cult, a woman takes a job in a home for adults with developmental disabilities, only to discover that she must face her dark past to save a girl with Down syndrome (played by a woman with Down syndrome)
- Not released yet?
- Plugs and Wrap-Up 59:15
- Site: freaksandpsychospodcast.com. Please subscribe, rate, and review
- Email: freaksandpsychospodcast@gmail.com
- Voicemail: 614-721-1011
- Twitter: @FreaksPsychos and @AnDreadtheBlind
- Letterboxd: Andread. Disability in Horror list
- Dark Mark, creator of the show’s intro and outro music
- Twitter: @mark underscore longfield
- Letterboxd: Darkmark
- Next episode: Hush with Lauren Strand
- If you find yourself wishing that you were normal, just remember: The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth.
There will be a transcript for this show in the future. Please contact freaksandpsychospodcast@gmail.com for any accessibility concerns.
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