Category Archives: Mental Illness

1997, Abduction, British Mystery Series, Car Chase, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crime, Detective, Disturbing Image, Eccentric Detective, Grim, Gritty, Kidnapping, Lawyers, Made For TV, Mental Illness, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Occasional gore, Prison, Psychological Thriller, Rape, Revenge, Sadism, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Torture, TV Series, Violent

Touching Evil (1997)

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From NetFlix:

After suffering head trauma from a shooting, moody, job-obsessed Detective Inspector Dave Creegan of the organized and serial crime unit heads off some of England’s most deviant and deadly offenders by creeping inside the criminal psyche.

Robson Green plays the DI Dave Creegan in this British detective TV series. His character is single-minded, isolated, and socially awkward. As is often the case in British detective shows, the crimes are usually violent and involve some ugly scenes. Indeed each episode develops side by side both Creegan’s personality difficulties as well as the crime du jour. You will not relax watching these plots but you will probably not be able to stop watching despite the suspense.

After he made this series, Robson Green then starred in Wire In The Blood in which he portrays the exact same personality, the only difference being that in this later series he ia cast as a free-lance psychologist specializing in the criminal mind.

Both “Touching Evil” and “Wire in the Blood” provide tense, suspenseful viewing that (providing your nerves hold up) you don’t want to miss.

2009, Ballet, Based on true facts, Detective, Disturbing Image, Imperfect, Mental Illness, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Psychological Thriller, Sex Scenes, Suspense, True Story, Unusual

In Her Skin (2009)

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From NetFlix:

When pretty 15-year-old Rachel (Kate Bell) goes missing, the police dismiss the incident as a runaway, but her parents don’t believe it. Soon everyone suspects envious 19-year-old Caroline (Ruth Bradley), a heavyset, acne-ridden daughter of a domineering father (Sam Neill). Simone North writes and directs this Australian drama, which is based on a 1999 news story. Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto also star.

Why does it seem that almost every Australian film I watch is somehow out of the ordinary or even a piece of eccentric originality? “In Her Skin” fits this description even though it is oddly imperfect in certain aspects.

Stay with the film because the beginning seems like a dull, ordinary film about a missing girl. What held my attention was the fact that the story is a true one based on a 1999 news story. You meet many familiar Australian film stars:

  • Guy Pearce (Rachel Barber’s father) is currently in “Prometheus” and “Lawless”. He has here a somewhat secondary role.
  • Sam Neill (Caroline’s father) plays an aloof, ego-centric, uncaring father. He was 62 during the filming. When he was a mere 30 years old he played Harry Beecham in “My Brilliant Career”, which was the first time I ever saw him.
  • Ruth Bradley (Caroline) was 22 at filming. She OWNS this film. She delivers a believable and utterly chilling portrayal of a psychotic who craves the approval of her cold fish of a father. In fact one thread that kept me interested was to see how and how soon her clever plot would unravel. This film is NOT a mystery. You get to watch Caroline’s unraveling in detail. Expect one ugly murder scene.

    If you look for Ruth Bradley in IMDB you see a photo of a very attractive woman. Somehow in this film she is anything but attractive. Conceivably she put on weight just for the film just as Robert De Niro did in “Raging Bull”.

Unfortunately the film drags on after the climax. We have to sit through a funeral, family grieving, and Caroline’s continuing fantasies in prison. However, at the very end the screen text tells us a bit about the Barber family.

One irritation for me was that the skeptical police who refused to investigate never seem to be admonished in the film. But then the film and story itself is more than enough of a reminder of their abject failure.

Worth watching if only because it is somewhat unusual.

1996, Abduction, British, Detective, Mental Illness, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Stalker, Suspense, Unusual

The Cold Light Of Day (1996)

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From NetFlix:

A troubled former cop uses an innocent young woman as the unsuspecting bait in his plan to catch a serial killer. A well-crafted thriller featuring gripping performances from a talented cast.

Once again I stumbled onto this off-beat serial killer film offered under NetFlix streaming. While not as professionally smooth as mainstream films, the plot, details, and acting is not bad (or should I say, has the feeling of an indie film).

Filmed in the Czech Republic, the actors speak with British accents. Subtitles are available. (By the way, that is currently one advantage of NetFlix streaming over Amazon – only NetFlix offers subtitles.) None of the actors are familiar to me. Anna, the child character, is acted very well by a child actress. Also the serial killer (whom we see throughout the film) is really creepy.

My only complaint is that a bad policeman who bullies innocents into confessions never gets his comeuppance.

Not at all a complete waste, just different from the usual styles.

2011, Could Be Hard To Watch, Dark, Disturbing Image, Grim, Horror, Mental Illness, Occasional gore, Sex Scenes, Violent

We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)

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From NetFlix:

Eva’s relationship with her son, Kevin, has been difficult from the beginning. When the 15-year-old boy’s cruel streak erupts into violence, Eva wonders how much blame she deserves for his actions.

If your child delights in killing small animals and blinding his sister in one eye, you might think of taking drastic measures. Why these two parental idiots did not report their budding psychopath to the proper authorities is beyond me. In fact, I don’t know what they could have done. Can you say to some helpful member of law enforcement “Our son is a dangerous sociopath, could you suggest something ?”

Tilda Swinton stretches believability. She suffers almost in silence the outrageous behavior of her son Crazy Kevin for all of his 16 years. John C. Reilly plays a doting father who somehow never sees the psychosis in darling Kevin. Get real!

Motivation for this film was probably the fact that there are indeed disturbed (am I being too harsh ?) teenagers that enjoy shooting as many of their classmates as they can manage in one exhilarating afternoon. What in fact was going on in those families ?

Hats off to Ezra Miller who plays the monster as a teenager. It doesn’t get any creepier.

But then, don’t you have something better to do with your time?

2011, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, Mental Illness, Psychological Drama, Unusual, Wonderful acting

Take Shelter (2011)

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From NetFlix:

Michael Shannon stars in this thriller as a small-town family man who, determined to protect his wife and deaf daughter from impending disaster, builds an impenetrable storm shelter in the safety of his own backyard.

Because the film is so true to life in the U.S., I found watching this film a very wrenching experience. What you experience is a devoted family man’s gradual descent into the clutches of paranoid schizophrenia. Perhaps I should not have told you this but soon enough you would guess the truth. This film is not science fiction nor a horror film. But in fact it is a horror film in the sense that you sit there powerless to prevent this good, well-meaning man from following the dictates of a mental illness even while he knows he has the disease (his mother developed the same illness when she was 30 and abandoned the family in a journey to the streets). In fact this is the first time I have seen portrayed the difficulty of realizing that a mental illness is directing your life and figuring out how to fight back (with the help of a professional over probably what will be a long period of time).

Three aspects of Americana that makes this film so hard to watch are things like: the difficulty in getting and affording a competent psychiatrist, the perilous way in which so many middle-class American families live just on the edge of bankruptcy and the damage that losing a job and its health benefits does to a family.

Only toward the end of the film do his wife and associates begin to understand that he has a mental illness. Meanwhile his actions cause all kinds of trouble for himself, his wife, his company, and his friends. Watching a climactic breakdown at a supper for parents of deaf children (his daughter is deaf and needs a cochlear implant) is a horror show in itself.

Michael Shannon is agent Nelson Van Alden in the TV series “Boardwalk Empire”. His acting here is phenomenal: understated, sadly driven, and possibly violent.

Be prepared for a tough but worthwhile trip.