13. Live Near A Mental Institution
The story of a murderous mental patient on the loose from a nearby asylum might have become a cliché, but it provided one of the earliest horror movie villains in the classic 1920s horror The Cat And The Canary. Gradually, however, there's been an interesting turn away from the physical threat of the inmates and towards the psychological menace of the asylum itself. Session 9 is probably the most explicit example of this: while it's never made clear whether it was Gordon's initial visit to the abandoned asylum that triggered his murderous actions, or whether his subsequent experiences while clearing the hospital of asbestos were figments of his imagination brought on by his guilt over killing his wife and child, the asylum itself is depicted as an emotional presence within the film, acting on the other characters and contributing to their depression and mental breakdown. Similarly, in Shutter Island it's revealed that the protagonist isn't being threatened by the inmates of the asylum but by the prospect of being permanently institutionalised there himself: the dank cells and sense of isolation and hopelessness in the conventional horrific thriller narrative reflect his own emotional withdrawal and inability to rationally deal with the acts he carried out and which led to him being incarcerated there.