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A Filmmaker's Guide: Characters of Twisted Humanity

A Study into Character

By Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago 5 min read
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Strangers on a Train (1951)

Twisted humanity, I must admit, is a phrase I coined and am currently working on within my realm of film analysis. During my MA, I studied the characters of troubling location, personality and disorderly behaviour - but I was also interested in the variant of that. The variant is what happens when a character is not outwardly or overtly 'bad' - what if their perception of what is considered humane or moral is simply twisted? Then, I sought to answer that question. Since my MA, I have not come to a definite answer but I have managed to amass a great amount of film to show you about what Twisted Humanity Theory is and how it works. In short, it is the on-screen personality of the main character who has a twisted perception of either a whole or piece of humanity through variations in their lifestyle, opinions, treatment of other people etc. which makes them either inept to certain emotions, a catalyst for certain situations or a vessel for the main problem within the narrative.

In movies, this is also shown especially by the way in which other characters react to this (usual) protagonist. Films that have characters of twisted humanity are often at work with other variants on emotion and psychology, which can include:

- Obsession

- High Pressure Situations

- Possessiveness

- Powerlessness

- Abuse

- Criminal Activity

-Detachment/Attachment Issues

The connection between the protagonist and the storyline in these films seems to be stronger than in many others that do not include a character of twisted humanity. The character of twisted humanity is not only a catalyst for the events of the narrative (as they either initiate self-control or self-destruction which hinders of helps the events and outcomes of the story move further). But, they also serve (as I have stated) as a vessel for the story in the sense that their own actions and self will slowly begin to plague the story and push it along - but then again the entire concept of the story itself could not exist without the character of twisted humanity. It is the character of twisted humanity that is the keeper of the narrative and their existence is the entire point of the story within the film.

Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, a character of incredible obsession in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941)

When we study characters of twisted humanity we're not just looking for explicit actions performed by the character. It is not just to do with the outward approach that they take upon situations in which they make them worse. But we are focussing also upon their relationships with others - especially those that have been lost or neglected. The next thing we are focussing on is the daily life of the character, the lifestyle being either overly routine to the point of obsession and compulsion, or being hectic to the point of erratic or neurotic behaviour/tendencies. It is after that and finally that you would analyse the personality after gathering this much data - and you analyse the personality by doing the following:

- Gage the reaction of other characters upon either the character of twisted humanity themselves, their lifestyle, their choices and decisions and even their ideas and beliefs

- Occupation - the occupation or job/education of the character can determine where they stand on the professional threshold, normally heightening the sense of neuroticism the higher up on the professional scale they are (mostly thanks to "American Psycho" (2000))

- Who they have lost in their life - If the character of twisted humanity has lost a loved one either through neglect or death, this is very important for analysing their reactions to others, certain situations and the wants and requirements to remain in a certain type/fashion/style and the fear of change

Christian Bale as the extremely secretive Alfred Borden in "The Prestige" (2006)

The most basic analysis of the character of twisted humanity comes mostly from a singular high pressure situation. There is one very high pressure situation in the film that is taken as a most climactic point and it is used to analyse reactions, will, personality, decisions and beliefs made by the character of twisted humanity in the space of only a few minutes or so. It gives the audience the confirmation they require that yes, this character does have aspects of twisted humanity through the way in which they respond to the situation and if we look at the personality of the character we would be able to see where the reaction came from through the reasoning of psychological analysis. Let's take a look at an example of how this happens from recent cinema:

Daniel Day-Lewis as the slightly neurotic Reynolds Woodcock in "Phantom Thread" (2017)

In the movie "Phantom Thread" (2017), Reynolds is the character of twisted humanity. We see his obsession in his lifestyle, his high pressure situations are constant and his OCD it seems, is pretty strong. Apart from this, we have the opinions of others about him as being not only very good, but many people like him - possibly suggesting he is some sort of psychopath who works like a machine. The highest point of pressure that is applied to his life is living with Alma - a woman he hires to work with him and falls in love with. Love ultimately breaks the conscience of Reynolds, disrupting his orderly lifestyle for the sake of this woman. We then get the reason for this behaviour as being focussed mostly on the death of his mother, whom he mentions many times throughout the film. Sometimes even a photograph is shown and at one point, she is seen as a ghost inside his room, in which his spirit is broken. So, not only the we have the way in which the character is of twisted humanity, but we also have the main reason for it as well.

Without further introduction then, we are going to have a look at ten films with characters of twisted humanity. This is going to be a simple list - if you would like to look further into the characters of twisted humanity then I suggest you pay close attention to the films. Seeing as this is a very subjective subject, I don't want to persuade you one way or the other especially concerning the oddities in nature of another human being even though they are fictional.

10 Films Containing Characters of Twisted Humanity

10. Misery (1990)

9. Strangers on a Train (1951)

8. Memento (2000)

7. Psycho (1960)

6. There Will Be Blood (2007)

5. The Game (1997)

4. Citizen Kane (1941)

3. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

2. The Third Man (1949)

1. Vertigo (1958)

Other films in which you could view these characters include...

A Touch of Evil (1958)

Chinatown (1974)

Fight Club (1999)

Phantom Thread (2017)

Inception (2010)

American Psycho (2000)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Prestige (2006)

12 Monkeys (1995)

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About the Creator

Annie Kapur

190K+ Reads on Vocal.

English Lecturer

🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)

🎓Film & Writing (M.A)

🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd)

📍Birmingham, UK

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