2. The first session
There is no non-diegetic sounds in this
scene, all it consists of is different camera
shots and editing. I think this is done so
we focus on what the therapist says and
try and get an image of the woman and
what she’s like and why she’s there. Its to
build character profile in a serious way.
They start the meeting normally where
the therapist just asks her about her
relationships with her husband and if
everything is okay between them.
I think we should use this method when
we film our therapist scene, having no
music and using mid-shots so the
audience focuses more on what the
characters are saying thus helps them
understand the narrative more clearly.
3. The next part is effective as it makes us question
the woman and her state of mind. She seems
confused and not of grip of reality.
Dr: What’s wrong
Telly: I had my coffee
Dr: No not today
Telly: Noo I just had some
Dr: I offered but you said no this time, last time
you had one… Memory slips
Telly: No I didn’t. I can still taste the coffee.
At this point you can see that she’s trying to
persuade her therapist and herself that she has
had a coffee. Obviously because we don’t know
much about her we get the impression that her
mind is elsewhere which is why her memory is
not good. We start to question her as a character
and I found this quite effective as we could use
this idea to confuse the audience and have mixed
idea’s about a character which will make them
think more and not know who to trust which is
vital in a psychological horror.
4. Dr: You erm, you smell my coffee, and you
manufacture a memory, a taste that’s all. You
do hang on hard. Sometimes the mind needs
help in letting a thing go
Terry: You expect me to let go of my son?
Dr: You think you amplify some of these
memories of Sam? Add to them?
Terry: No, why would I?
On this scene we realise why Terry is in therapy, she’s missing her son. Although we don’t
know what happened to her son we still sympathise with Terry. I thought the way the
conversation shifts like this manipulates the audiences head and their views of Terry. It
moves from the audience thinking that Terry is crazy to thinking that she’s just mourning
over the loss of her son. Again this makes the
audience have mixed opinions on Terry which
is exactly what we need to do in our
film, create questions in the audiences head
and manipulate the way they feel. Also the
end question that the Dr asks makes the
audience think and ask questions. What does
the Dr mean? Why would he ask that? Is
there something about Terry we need to
know?
5. The second session
After the photograph incident (explained
on the post of The Forgotten Analysis)
Terry has another session with the Dr. This
is where the story starts to unfold and
confuse the audience because Terry’s
husband explains to her that she imagined
all the pictures of Sam.
Terry: Do you know what he’s telling me
Dr: Yes
Terry: Is he psychotic
Dr: No
Terry: My child, my Sam
Dr: Telly, there was never a Sam
Puretta, you never had a son
6. This is where we got our idea
from, making a character who has had a
family member or friend who they were
close to, then suddenly everyone tells
them that they’re delusional and that the
person they knew never existed. To make
this effective we needed to twist the
audiences thoughts and confuse them. In
‘The Forgotten’ it is done well through
what the Dr says to Terry during this
scene. What we thought was effective
was the way he explains what’s
happened to her and what condition
she’s in.
7. Terry: (Laughs) This is insane
Dr: I’m so sorry I wanted to help you
slowly, gently but I never thought that
you-
Terry: No, he erased the tape, replaced the
book with an empty book. How can you
believe him? Sam he grew up he was nine.
NINE. I had NINE years of memories.
Dr: Invented memories, Terry, it happens.
People do this, it’s call paramnesia. You
imagined a life-
Terry: NO everyone remembers Sam.
EVERYONE.
At this point the audience are unsure who
to believe. At the beginning we were sure
that she had a son due to going to her
therapist and all the toys and photographs.
Even when I first watched the film I was
unsure of what to think and who to believe.
However the way she’s acting so desperate and explaining to him what her husband did
without any proof is hard to believe, but we saw the photographs as well, she couldn’t have
imagined them. Due to her husband being portrayed as a good man and gets uncomfortable
when she talks about being psychotic makes us re-think.
8. Husband: Terry you had a miscarriage, your life
was indanger, the baby was pre-mature, it was
still born, you almost died.
Dr: Post dramatic shock, it effects everyone
differently, sometimes people actually invent
entire alternate lives with imagined friends and
lovers and children
Terry: STOP IT. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS.
Why are you both trying to take him away from
me. I made him up? I made him up? (Laughs)
Dr and Husband look at each other
uncomfortably
Terry: Cries. This is so simple. There are
photographs
Dr: People with your condition, they can look at
a photograph and see what their mind tells
them to see, you used to see Sam. You’re
recovering.
9. This again makes us re-think everything. The photographs especially, did we see them
from her point of view? Did we see what she wanted to see or did we actually see the
real photographs before someone actually erased them.
