Horror-of-personality
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The horror-of-personality film is one of three sub-genres of the horror film that grew out of mid- and late-20th-Century American culture. Perhaps the most seminal example of this sub-genre is Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). What distinguishes the horror-of-personality film from classic horror film is that, for the first time, the object of horror does not look like a monstrous other, but rather a normal human being, whose horrific identity is often not revealed until the end of the film. Typically, Freudian psychology and sex are emphasized in these films, along with prosaic locations, such as bright bathrooms and suburban homes, which heretofore had been unimportant in horror film. Other early examples include Homicidal (William Castle, 1961), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962), Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Robert Aldrich, 1964), Pretty Poison (Noel Black, 1968), and The Collector (William Wyler, 1965).
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