Psychological horror is a genre of media, stories and ideas that have to do with the psychology of the character. Its supposed to mess with your head either through some trauma or enlightening experience. Very much like a Fermi Paradox. It is a very philosophical but also abstract idea and form of storytelling. Mix that in with horror and you got an interesting form of entertainment. Culturally there have been gothic literature that has to do with the horrors of the unknown. Something like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick is very popular in the science fiction genre but equally adds to psychological horror with its ideas of alternate realities, human nature, identity and the nature of reality. Additionally, movies have had some adaptation in their form of storytelling but there aren’t many choices that deal with psychological horrors. Most ultimately allow us to judge characters decisions. Like saying if they gone mad, it allows the viewer to be in their shoes and allow us to calculate how far is to far. Are horrendous acts of this person justifiable based on what they have experienced in the past. This is a psychological horror. The Shinning, Get Out and American Psycho are good examples of this. Where we witness the characters fall out of their sanity and we are just spectators viewing their mind spiral away from ideals.
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