The Uncanny

The concept of uncanny helps people distinguished what they are familiar with from what they believe in. Many people don’t find some horror movies or film as uncanny, but others do, depending on the context and its underlying portrayal. I think for the most part when a person identifies a certain thing/person as uncanny, they are using the characterization of past or unconscious memories to challenge what they know or think they know, but really are unsure of what to expect next.

I rarely watch horror movies, but I remember growing up I used to watch SCREAM and although it is marked as a horror film, to me it does not have that uncanny affect because of the ridiculous costume the killer wears, and in the most recent SCREAM the humor overpowers the horror, in my opinion. 

In this movie, the killer has a mask/costume and goes around killing people unexpectedly, but one uncanny part about this film is that people are uncertain about whether the killer will get them next. However, the audience is aware of the tension buildup that something is about to happen, and the emotional reactions force the viewers to realize the fear that something is out there, and that they must be “alert” at all times.

For me, this relates to religion because we are afraid of the unknown, yet we go everyday living our normal lives, but when tragedy strikes we are forced to recognized that there is a something out there whether it be God or a certain killer, that we must be on alert for, and ready to face at any given time.

Another aspect of uncanny also applies to literature. For example, back in high school I was obsessed with the Twilight Saga, and the Vampire Diaries; both the books and the movie/tv show. In these two examples, uncanny is define as a doppelganger or a reflection of what we know versus what we don’t know as unfamiliar.  

For example, in the first twilight movie, Bella is being uproot from her hometown to a new mysterious town. Unfamiliar with the town, she finds herself attracted to this mysterious, odd looking guy (Edward), and from then on things go downhill. Immediately, readers and viewers are drawn in by the suspense as soon as she learns that he is a vampire. As Freud states, “one of the surest devices for producing slightly uncanny effects through storytelling writes Jentsch, ‘is to leave the reader wondering whether a particular figure is a real person or automaton” (135).  This is especially true for readers who have never seen the films, the suspense leads to the questioning if Edward really does possess these skills to stay awake for hundreds of thousands of years, or if the other character Jacob can really have the powers to change into a wolf.

The movie aspect really captures the uncanny is when in the third or fourth adaption, Bella must hide from the voltures, I think that’s what the group is called, but somehow, they catch onto her human scent.

The idea of suspense, the unknown, and familiarity all gives us the sense that something coming that we think we know, and can handle, but when face with the unknown we tend to question our familiarity and begin to have doubts about what’s real versus what is unreal. These movies/tv shows and literature help us see that whether we believe in ghosts vampires, or other aspects of supernatural, we as humans are wired to reacted without thinking, and then once that fear subsides we question the uncertainty of our beliefs and knowledge.