Horror Director Brooks Hunter Uses Bipolar Disorder As Inspiration
Director Brooks Hunter was recently interviewed about his horror film, “Kenneyville”. The film is about a couple that find themselves kidnapped by a group that wishes to brainwash them. The film explores what happens when one’s sense of reality begins to break down. Hunter is himself bipolar, and uses his experience of the disorder as the basis of the dramatic tension in the script: “It turns into a challenging concept to wrap your head around, however, when trying to discern what`s a real emotion versus what`s an emotion affected by a chemical imbalance.” The film, while it is apparently about kidnapping, deals with themes of losing one’s sense of reality and trying to discover what is real again. The complete interview can be found here.
Commentary
I’m going to admit right off that I’m not going to be able to see this film. I’m honestly worried about what the effect of a film inspired by bipolar psychosis would be on my mental state. However, this film sounds like it could be very useful for explaining (or rather showing) the experience of mental illness to those who might not have it. That sense that one cannot tell what is real is of course strongest in psychosis, but it extends to all the moods in one’s life, where one is constantly questioning what is pathological and what is not.
Making a horror film about bipolar disorder is an interesting approach. We’re accustomed to fictional dramas about bipolar disorder, but to make a horror film really captures what the worst of it is like. It is scary and disorienting, like, well, a horror film.
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