Halloween is a time to muse on all the ways the eerie and sinister can creep into our regularly mundane lives, and many gleefully turn to horror movies to provide that perfect combination of fright and excitement. The popularity of the horror genre is not inexplicable: Displeasure can be (and often is) entertaining. Such is the case for this year’s presidential election, and the psychological and thematic similarities between horror movies and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign are worth exploring.
As my colleague Eric Xu wrote last week, the debates are “held not so much as to educate the voters on the issues, but rather to bring entertainment value.” Trump and Hillary Clinton are the most disliked presidential candidates in recent political history, and yet the first presidential debate was the most-watched debate ever, surpassing the old record-holder, the 1980 debate between Reagan and Carter, by more than 4 million viewers. Trump might disappoint, anger and even disturb Republicans and Democrats alike, but we all continue to watch the daily theater.
Horror movies cause heart rate and breathing to increase dramatically — effectively, they make people feel stressed and anxious. Trump has had the same effect: Several psychologists have noted what they call the “Trump Effect” — increased fear, anxiety and stress, particularly among minorities and other groups targeted by Trump’s rhetoric. In a national poll of 1,000 voting-age Americans, 43 percent of respondents reported they experienced emotional distress related to Trump’s campaign.
Trump’s appeal is not unlike that of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 sleeper hit, “Psycho.” In the movie, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a thieving and lovesick secretary on the run, pulls over at the Bates Motel, where she meets Norman Bates (Anthony Perk), a tightly strung mama’s boy with a passion for taxidermy. “Psycho” is packed with lewdness, violence and sexual appetite — qualities that shocked and delighted the audiences of 1960. Richard Brody, writing for “The New Yorker,” notes, “it was clear that Hitchcock tapped into ugly elements of the unconscious at a time when lots of people were ready to become conscious of them.” For many, part of Trump’s appeal has been his commitment to eschew political correctness. Under the guise of honesty, Trump has embraced racism, misogyny and xenophobia, yet maintains a solid base of support, suggesting that he too has tapped into “ugly elements” of the American unconscious.
The killer in John Carpenter’s 1978 film, “Halloween,” possesses “no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and [not] even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong.” Michael Myers, wearing a waxy white mask, has lost the capacity for compassion, and has become terrifyingly inhuman. In headline after headline, journalists have labelled Trump a monster. The moniker seems evidently appropriate in the wake of the release of a 2005 video in which Trump makes several disturbing comments about his behavior towards women. Our fascination with Trump is similar to our fascination with Myers: he is monstrous but undeniably human, even if the things he says are impossible to stomach.
Hitchcock’s masterpiece eventually ballooned a franchise, provided the paradigm for the slasher flick and cultivated a dedicated cult following. Between 1978 and 2009, the longest gap between the production of one movie in the “Halloween” franchise and the next was never longer than six years. Even though Clinton’s strong lead in the latest polls suggests Trump’s presidential run will be ending not with a bang, but a whimper, the legacy of Trump’s campaign, born out of the same elements that create blockbuster horror movies, will surely extend far beyond November 8th, continuing to entertain, fascinate and terrify us. There may be no Trump II — but we certainly haven’t seen the last of him.
Jordan Arnold is a Viewpoint writer.
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