10 Shocking Examples Of Gaslighting In Movies

Gaslighting is a particularly vile and duplicitous means of manipulation. TV Tropes defines it as “deliberately trying to drive someone mad by altering their environment without their knowledge, then denying it”. It plays at one’s natural impulse to put their faith in someone they believe to be trustworthy. This may be a husband or lover, or could represent the government, typically seen in dystopian stories.

It’s a serious subject, because not only is it seen in books, movies and TV, but unfortunately it occurs in real life far too often. In fiction, it can occasionally be played for laughs. For instance, a memorable episode of the sitcom Happy Endings (The Kerkovich Way) features the character Jane tricking her husband into thinking he’s forgotten an entire evening’s worth of events. But these moments work as humor because they’re so cruel, and the gaslighter has such little insight into the potential damage she could be causing.

It is a form of psychological abuse, a despicable means of controlling a person or even an entire population. Since the Golden Age of cinema, depictions of gaslighting have been pervasive in storytelling, often with terrifying and memorable accounts.

Based on real events of the 1920's, The Changeling features Angelina Jolie as a young, single mother whose son Walter is missing. The story blows up in the local media and mars the police department of Los Angeles. Months later, Christine (Jolie) is informed that the police have recovered her son and they will be reunited. It should be a happy moment, a relieving ending to the most horrendous of nightmares.

But it isn't. The boy who is brought to her is not her son, and the differences between the two are not exactly subtle. He is significantly shorter since his disappearance. Unlike before his departure, he is now circumsized.

The differences should be strikingly obvious that the boy is a plant, a tool of the police to make Christine's harrowing tale disappear, but the discrepancies are waved off. Christine's detractors go on the offensive: They say she's a bad mother. That she's crazy. She's sent to a psych ward and forced to take antipsychotic medications.

Not only has the corrupt police department gaslit Christine, their exploitation of the media has also gaslit the people of the town who turned against her.

The Changeling has been somewhat lost over the decade since its release, but it is a stark depiction of the strength that those in power can wield against the weak. Angelina Jolie received a deserved Best Actress nomination for her terrific portrayal as Christine, a strong woman in the face of multiple tragedies.