Karin has just been released from a mental hospital after receiving treatment for severe schizophrenia. She is accompanied by her husband Martin, father David and younger brother Minus. At first things start off relatively innocuously, but then in the middle of the night, Karin enters her father's room (he is a writer) and she reads his accounts of her illness, learning her finds it horrible yet fascinating to watch her go mad. At this, Karin's sanity starts to tremble. Martin attacks David for treating Karin not as a child, but as a test subject. David admits to this and tells Martin that he almost killed himself, but love for his family saved him. After a seriously messed up rendezvous on a boat, in which Karin may have sexually seduced Minus, an airplane ambulance is sent for Karin who is convinced that God is going to reveal himself to her through a crack in the wall. She asks everyone to pray with her and she freaks out and has to be sedated when God is revealed to be a giant spider. As a schizophrenic, Karin lives in two separate worlds - reality and one of severe psychosis. In the film she declares that she can not exist in a dual world and it is easier for her to accept a long term future in a mental hospital in which she can succumb to her demons, than struggle to lead a normal life. Nowadays, there would be a plethora of drugs to which Karin may respond positively to. Back in 1961, the prognosis of the schizophrenic was risible. Harriet Andersson gives a stand out performance of a woman undergoing the mental equivalent of the Vietnam War. Such a portrait of female schizophrenia has yet to be bettered. What other movies provide an insightful look at mental illness? Discuss them down in the comments.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!