MovieChat Forums > Shut In (2016) Discussion > Mentally ill people are not a sideshow o...

Mentally ill people are not a sideshow of monsters and freaks


I'm so sick and tired of seeing distorted caricatures of mentally ill individuals next to vampires and werewolves in the horror movie section. Mental illness is a debilitating and often fatal health issue that is only rendered more socially crippling by media stigmatization in general and the "scary crazy people" horror movie trope in particular.

Some might consider this post to be a spoiler, but the plot summary / press release blurb of this unimaginative concoction, which falsely describes agoraphobia as a psychosis and shows how little background knowledge went into the script, already gives the basic plot away: Home invaders turn from hunters to hunted because mentally ill people are oh so dangerous and violent. Feh.

If you don't understand why the utter lack of creativity that compels writers and directors to turn a disenfranchised and much-stereotyped minority into movie villains is a social issue, just imagine a horror flick that shows Jewish people sacrificing Christian children on Passover. This movie is just as unacceptable, and for exactly the same reason. (In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you google "Aktion T4").

Bottom line: Unlike fangs, horns and claws, mental illness is not an acceptable movie monster attribute. Mentally ill individuals have enough crap to deal with and really don't need this undeserved stigma and misinformation. It shouldn't be that difficult to come up with a creative and original horror movie monster/villain who isn't based on a minority demographic.

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[deleted]

Valid point.

HARLEYS R4 YUPPIES
(my bumper sticker)

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wahhhhhhh I don't like mentally ill people being portrayed blah blah blah.

And?

Get over it, you and all the other people of the offended nation should just get over it.

You hate Congress but every election you re-elect YOUR "guy" and wonder why things never change!

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you and all the other people of the offended nation should just get over it.


Surely you must realize the self-referential irony in your very own "wahhhhhhh, I'm so offended by your post" rant? Welcome to the offended nation, citizen. Here, let me bandage your foot. It appears you've shot yourself there.

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People are so hypersensitive. On more than a couple of instances, I've seen people take THEIR American Flag and being that it is their personal property set it ablaze, particularly in protest to an impending war. People were so offended by this guy's act of protest that he was issued corpious death threats. I'm a Veteran of the First Gulf War and I wasn't offended by his actions.

Then again, the US has been engaged in perpetual warfare since its inception.

As the global anomoly, we are the only nation whose citizens to have never had a single generation that has not experienced any form of a war.

There was also the instance when I was in Hong Kong a few months following the collapse of the Twin Towers. There were merchants peddling the bubble shaped planes that crashed into the Towers, like a toy memorabilia. There were a few other Americans other than myself there, I believe they we're Expats who had been living there for years. They were irate.

They were attempting to tell the guy how offfensive the toys were. But, of course, being Americans were incapable of speaking even a sentence in Cantonese. I was more offended that they had been residing there for nearly a decade and were still incapable of speaking the native language.

That, and making a scene (in the view of the natives) by telling them what they should not sell in their own country simply reedified the "Ugly American" stereotype of us being arrogant, ignorant, and uncultured. But, this primarily applied towards White Americans only.

You want to talk about being offended:


I've been to 39 different nations and am constantly bombarded with questions. I swear they're setting is I somehow. African-Americans are branching out to other countries in order to escape American racism, and are doing damn well. Interestingly, far better than they ever did here as they're often provided loans that American banks frequently deny to them. In addition to their new wealth, they open businesses, hire the locals while providing them with much better salaries than US companies who are associated as being owned by White Americans. Then they master the language within two years because they enroll in language courses almost as soon as they depart from the plane.

All you here is "why do Black Americans show so much respect to us and you Whites show nothing but arrogance and violence?" I can't even count the number of times I've been called "White Devil." I'm always being stopped at airports for my luggage to be checked to make sure that I don't have any guns on me, of course because all White Americans carry guns (on our hips).

But, ive been to countries while I'm leaving the airport, security stops me when they're informed I'm from the US, just so they can ensure I don't possess any guns. Meanwhile some Blacks are walking right pass us speaking English. But in fairness, there has been a lot of Americans who attempt to bring their personal firearms into a country. Once, I was so posses at watching even more Blacks walking by without being checked, I said, "why aren't you checking them? Why only me?!!" They laughed and said, every time we checked them they never bring anything illegal, only you guys."

Sorry for the diatribe, I guess that I still have a little pony up frustration remaining.

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As someone who was agoraphobic for years and couldn't even leave the house, I also have to laugh at the plot description describing it as a psychosis.

I'm assuming the woman has someone else deeply wrong with her beyond agoraphobia, because agoraphobes aren't violent in any way.

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It's a movie...not reality

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I concur with your thesis: In the United States, the mentally ill continue to be misperceived and misinterpreted as The Booguy (wo) man.

There appears to be a dearth of research conducted by the writer. Most Americans remain unaware that individuals suffering from schizophrenia are a disproportionate safety threat to themselves (frequently culminating with being murdered) than towards others.

Moreover, schizophrenics are often the victims of physical violence-leading to their eventual deaths by the mentally "sane," and I employ that nerve liberally.

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Then don't watch it

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The thing about stereotypes perpetuated by movies is that they tend to affect minority members no matter if they watch said movies or not. Many people are afraid of schizophrenics (or crossdressers, for that matter) and confuse them with psychopaths because they watched Hitchcock's sorry effort "Psycho" back in the day. And if these people are cops, they might shoot first and ask questions later. That's why it's important to combat negative media stereotypes and seek to inform people.

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Tastentier , there are mentally ill people portayed in movies who are good, heroic, helpful, loyal etc

And there are also mentally ill people depicted as killers etc.

Just like everything else in movies and real life, there is good, and, bad.

Hitchcock's sorry effort "Psycho"

You look like an idiot, criticizing that film. Name 5 films that you think are excellent.

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Hitchcock confused dissociative identity disorder with schizophrenia, misrepresented both conditions as psychopathy / ASPD, and managed to bash trans* people while he was at it. No matter how well Psycho was executed from an artistic perspective, it might as well be a piece of anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda. And I'll name fvck all if it's all the same to you. You don't get to insult people and order them around in the next sentence. How about you name five films that portray mentally ill individuals as heroic and helpful?

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How about you name five films that portray mentally ill individuals as heroic and helpful?


home alone (homeless dude)
dont say a word (the chick with the code)
one flew over the cuckoos nest (Indian dude)
Shine (Geoffrey Rush)
12 Monkeys (Brad Pitt)

You really should not argue with me, you are making yourself look more and more stupid...

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Oh please. Homelessness = mental illness? Pitt's character in 12 Monkeys was a ridiculous caricature of Hollywood's mental patient stereotype, and Chief Bromden was perfectly healthy. The entire point of the character was that he turned out to be as "normal" as McMurphy prior to his lobotomy, even though everyone assumed him to be deaf, mute, and possibly intellectually impaired. The unexpected relevation that he is none of these things is a major plot point of OFOTCN.

Bottom line: You're really reaching, as I knew you'd have to do, and you're trying to be as offensive as possible while you're at it ("chick", "Indian" etc.) And even if all your examples were indeed posititive or at least fair and realistic portrayals of mentally ill individuals, as well as major characters rather than small side roles, it still wouldn't make up for the countless horror flicks and thrillers that stereotype neurodiverse people as sadistic killers. Discrimination remains discrimination.

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you get offended too easily.. get a life.

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People are murdered by police officers as a result of these stereotypes and the resulting baseless fears. But hey, it's just human lives. You can always get a new one, am I right? "Get a life". That simple. No need to get offended just because people die in the streets.

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If films were only made about centred, self-reliant, sane people, cinema would be dead.

Movies are made about the extreme outliers.

The portrayal can be sympathetic or critical, or even a cartoon version. It's not always supposed to be realistic. Movies are not, inherently, realistic.

If the alternative is to ignore or whitewash psychopathy, then how is that any better? Crazy people kill people. They kill more people than terrorists in the USA. Not that I'm saying there isn't a good deal of overlap.

If it turned out some people were vampires or werewolves or humghouls, are you saying we should ignore their overwhelmingly negative ways and stop making movies about them because they are a minority?

Jaws is an indictment of sharks. Sharks have gotten over it.

There's no discrimination against crazy people in movies. Crazy people ruin hundreds of thousands of peoples lives every year. Crazy people don't need to be protected, we need to be protected from them. If a movie serves to remind us of that, then good on it.

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Psychopathy is not a mental illness, it's a personality disorder. And craziness, aka insanity, is again a completely different concept. Anyone can be temporarily insane (e.g., due to drug abuse or sleep deprivation), whereas most mentally ill people are not.

Your ignorant comment shows why movies like Intruders are so misleading and damaging to the public image of a much-discriminated minority. Mental illness has nothing to do with psychopathy. 25% of the population in Western nations are mentally ill, but these individuals only commit 4% of all violent crimes. This means that people who aren't mentally ill are statistically far more dangerous than those who suffer from depression, ADHD, OCD, or even schizophrenia.

PS: If you're unsure which condition constitutes a mental illness as opposed to a personality disorder, paraphilia, neurodevelopmental disorder, neurodegenerative disease, intellectual disability or whatever, ask yourself "does this condition cause people to suffer" and "is it treatable". In case of an illness, the answer to both questions is "yes". Mentally ill people suffer greatly, even without being bashed by the ignorant and clueless. Whereas pssychopaths, pedophiles and similar filth don't suffer from an illness, but instead inflict suffering on others and greatly enjoy themselves while they're at it. There is no treatment for these monsters either. Their brains are simply differently wired, hence the different psychiatric classification. But since this flick discriminates against the mentally ill, that's not what we're talking about here.

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