Point 1 – Genre

Christian Metz, a French film theorist, theorised that genres go through a cycle of four stages as they develop – the experimental stage – where the codes and conventions of a genre are founded – the classic stage – where these set conventions become iconic and staples of the genre – the parody stage – where the films become self-aware and begin to mock these tropes – and the deconstruction stage – where the rules of the genre are broken more carelessly, and sometimes where “hybrid genres” are formed as a result. (On screen quote) “The laws of genre are derived from earlier examples of that genre” Christian Metz, Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema [1974]).

Both The Shining and The Lighthouse could be considered to be within a ‘classic stage’ of psychological horror’s development, as they follow a very standard plotline of the genre – people go to an isolated space, someone slowly loses their sanity in this space due to external or internal factors, before attempting – sometimes succeeding – to kill one or more people.

Despite this basic breakdown of the two films, they are still vastly different when it comes to their visuals and approaches to cinematography, which completely revises the way in which the audience perceives and feels about each film as it plays out.

Psychological horror thrives on the human emotion of empathy, which it utilises to stir up feelings of anxiety and fear within a viewer as opposed to the regular use of jump scares, gore and disturbing visual imagery seen in classic horror. While a lot of psychological horror films make use of disturbing imagery, it’s often done in such a way that twists and focuses on the human form – such as Eggers’ grotesque use of nudity filming acts society declares as shameful, and the deranged mannerisms often used by Kubrick’s characters.