Art Imitates Lives

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer Movies, particularly horror films, have historically depicted people with mental illnesses as maladjusted or criminally insane. They’re usually the first ones investigated, or scapegoated, for child abduction, rape and murder as in the case of franchise villains Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.& Over the years, mental illness has been featured on screens big and small. Here are a few memorable titles. I don’t remember any Black people being in it, but Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 movie, “Psycho” is the ultimate display of mental illness on the big screen. The classic film stars Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, a meek motel operator who is seemingly dominated by his mother. The shower scene becomes a common trope in horror films, but nobody does it better than the original. Bates’ delusions and murderous activities have been interpreted as being the result of schizophrenia and more recently, dissociative identity disorder. Bill Gunn’s 1973 Black horror film, “Ganja & Hess” is a cult classic. In it an anthropologist becomes a vampire after being stabbed with an ancient dagger by his suicidal assistant, played by Gunn.& Football star-turned actor Bernie Casey stars in the 1976 film, “Dr. Black, Mr....