psychological disorders

The 2001 psychological thriller Don't Say A Word is a good example of a film that shares themes with our film in order to fit its genre. Brittany Murphy's character Elisabeth is a patient at a state sanatorium, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The use of this illness adds to creating suspense within the narrative, as it prevents Elisabeth from entirely revealing the six digit code that Dr. Conrad, played by Michael Douglas, needs to acquire. Her mental condition restrains her from trusting the doctor, which poses a  problem throughout the narrative, thus creating suspense and keeping the audience engaged as the story seems more compelling to watch. Similarly, we drew an influence from this film for our own character and decided that he too would be diagnosed with a psychological disorder. After research into various mental illnesses that could be fitting for our character Cornelius, we came to the decision that he would suffer from Schizophrenia, as most people have heard of this disorder however may not be fully aware of its symptoms and consequences. As well as this, we felt that the character traits and behaviour of someone suffering from Schizophrenia would be more appropriate to the narrative, as it allowed for an array of actions to move along our plot, such as the hallucinations and premonition.

Similarly, the character of Norman Bates, portrayed by Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 thriller Psycho shares certain characteristics with our character of Cornelius. A  psychological disorder is common of the two characters, as Norman suffers from dissociative identity disorder, which makes him take on his mother's personality. After a string of murders, due to his disorder, the consequence of his actions results in Norman being sent to a mental institute where his mother's persona completely takes over. We also implemented a similar idea in our own film, as towards the end our character Cornelius also ends up in an asylum. Unlike Psycho, we challeneged audience expectations however by portraying Cornelius as the protagonist, whereas in Psycho, Norman is the antagonist that conducts the murders.