The return of the repressed is a theory which Freud used to describe the existence of neurotic symptons. The return of the repressed means bottled up elements are kept in the conscience of a person, sometimes without notice. These then tend to reappear in consciousness or behaviour. These signs of repressed feelings can be related to horror movies as many horrors are about the "return" of something, this could be the return of the repressed feelings one had when they were a young child, these feelings are then let "loose" as an adult resulting in going mad or killing people to fulfill the anger needs. This could be the reason why people are mentally unstable as they become older, a reason is normally behind this. A question I have thought about is "Why do we go to watch horror movies if they scare us so much?" I feel we all have a level of repressed anger in us, and when we go to watch horror movies a safe level of these bottled up feelings are released.
An example of this theory could be relating to a broken up relationship. Person (A) could have been cheated on in a previous relationship, they then enter a new relationship with person (B) having doubts in the back of the mind. Person (B) starts staying late at "work" or coming late home, Person A is then consciously thinking about this strange behaviour, this could come out in their behaviour. Another example of this could be an adult, who has had a troubled childhood, they have bottled up all their anger/ sadness and have moved on, whilst these thoughts remain subconsiously in their brains, as they get older they become mentally unstable due to their troubled childhood and not being able to speak ouot for years, the feeling let looses possibly trying to make people feel how they once did. Many horror movies are based on this idea, for example; house of wax is about a group of happy teenagers going to camp near a house of wax, at the beginning of the film we are shown two young children being tortued. The happy teenagers enter this town, where the young children who have now grown up live. The teenagers get tortued by the two brothers as they have both become mentally unstable, showing their repressed feelings of anger.
An example of this theory could be relating to a broken up relationship. Person (A) could have been cheated on in a previous relationship, they then enter a new relationship with person (B) having doubts in the back of the mind. Person (B) starts staying late at "work" or coming late home, Person A is then consciously thinking about this strange behaviour, this could come out in their behaviour. Another example of this could be an adult, who has had a troubled childhood, they have bottled up all their anger/ sadness and have moved on, whilst these thoughts remain subconsiously in their brains, as they get older they become mentally unstable due to their troubled childhood and not being able to speak ouot for years, the feeling let looses possibly trying to make people feel how they once did. Many horror movies are based on this idea, for example; house of wax is about a group of happy teenagers going to camp near a house of wax, at the beginning of the film we are shown two young children being tortued. The happy teenagers enter this town, where the young children who have now grown up live. The teenagers get tortued by the two brothers as they have both become mentally unstable, showing their repressed feelings of anger.
This is not quite "repression" in Freud's terms. Freud thought we all have to repress some of our most primitive desires and emotions in order to take our place in society. So infant rages etc are repressed (we cannot recall our early childhood). Does horror allow us to experience these things again, in a safe context?
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