Format: Streaming video from Plex on Fire!
There is a long history of films where a male character becomes obsessed with a woman and does everything he can to get close to her, causing death and mayhem along the way. Twisted Nerve is another in that long line of films. It’s disturbing in the same way that Peeping Tom is disturbing, and for a lot of the same reasons, although this is far less extreme. However, what it gives up in shock value, it makes up by placing former child actor Hayley Mills in the role of stalking victim
One of the problems with films that explore mental illness is that it frequently gets a great deal of it wrong, often simplifying things far too much to get to a desired ending. Hitchcock, with films like Marnie and Spellbound might have been the worst for this, but it’s a consistent problem—mental illness is rarely depicted accurately or fairly. Twisted Nerve probably isn’t that accurate, either (not a psychologist, so I can’t really speak to it with much experience or knowledge), but it at least presents us with something interesting. It is nice to know, however, that the film begins with a disclaimer that people with Downs Syndrome are not dangerous and are not connected to psychosis or criminality.
