Lol not demonized? but he made the main character transform into a literal monster that could climb walls and was bullet proof and ate people. That is not even remotely how that illness works.
People with DID are incredibly traumatized. That’s like making a movie of people with PTSD that go around killing people. (Oh wait they’ve done that before too…sigh…)
Lol! Well said, @Sarad. 
I don’t think the problem is so much that this one time someone made a movie where someone with DID was a murderer. The problem is that literally every time a character with DID is portrayed onscreen, they are portrayed as being dangerous. For the overwhelming majority of cases, this is just not true. Imagine that there was a horror movie out there where the killer was bipolar. Now, imagine that every time you ever saw a bipolar character, they were portrayed as a killer. Seeing it once might not bother you so much, but after the ninth or tenth time, you might start to get pissed.
Now, I didn’t see the movie. I don’t plan on seeing the movie. But I think it would be nice if there were more positive representations of people with mental illness in the media. I do believe that it has an effect on how people view us in real life. Most neurotypicals don’t have any real experience with severe mental illnesses. They don’t study it like we do. The only time they are exposed to the idea is when they see it onscreen. If you didn’t know anything about schizophrenia except what you saw of it on television, you would probably be much more afraid of us. I think this is a big source of the negative stigma we have to fight on a daily basis.
He made that very clear in the movie. The Beast is on the line of his previous movie The Unbreakable and probably building an idea about some kind of ubermench…
I would like to see Shamalayan get fed to "the beast"
Since he’s so preoccupied with the absurdity of mental illness. I heard brad pit is doing a movie about bipolar disorder. That should be better
The issue is that Hollywood regularly portrays characters with severe MI in a negative light in films. This is not really the case with other minority or vulnerable groups where there tends to be a more balanced portrayal in films.
Also, since this is a mental health forum that includes members with DID, it seems disrespectful to sing the praises of a film that negatively portrays DID.
They should make a movie about my life and call it “dude interrupted”. I could star in it. It basically consists of me wandering around in my bathrobe drinking coffee and taking pills. The highlight would be the occasional flashback to being incarcerated or restrained in a psychiatric ward while doctors make their rounds. I don’t accomplish anything in this movie. There is no happy ending. It just stops abruptly with me waking up at 12:00 in the afternoon and saying ■■■■!
There no law against enjoying things that are problematic. I enjoy plenty of problematic art. I’m really disturbed, though, by the attitude that if you like the actor’s performance/it’s not about your disorder/you personally aren’t negatively affected, then no one should be bothered and is a “snowflake” if they are.
When it comes from people so vocal about the need for compassion and understanding for issues close to them, this is disappointing.
Well, that didn’t bother me, @Anna because during a therapy session in the movie the therapist describes why the character needs the beast. It was moving to me because that’s why I need Seraton. He’s powerful.
Now, the movie, being a movie, goes further, but I wasn’t offended.
I dunno, @Hedgehog. Sometimes sz people murder other people. I mean, that’s just a fact. So why is it a problem in The Visit?
I didn’t actually call “snowflakes” people with DID. And, speaking of them, we are still speaking instead of them. So…I would like to hear a person with DID opinion’s about this.
Shyalaman is still just a movie maker and I’m not defending the fact that he is working inside the certain genre. I wrote my opinion about The Visit. I am very aware of the Hollywood’s part in stigmatization of people with MI. But it’s not the whole truth that there are no movies about MI that doesn’t represent it in realistic way, there are actually, just not in this specific genre.
BTW I find Dr.Phil’s and reality shows like his and sensational documentaries way more harmful than any movie - which most people take as a fiction.
For DID there is basically nothing. It’s all Psycho and stuff like this. There was United States of Tara a few years ago, that was refreshing. But otherwise, it’s serial killers to the point of being a laughable trope.
You called people who found the film’s concept problematic “snowflakes” - which include plenty of people with DID, some of whom we’ve heard from. People say the same about those troubled by media representation of Muslims. I’m just saying, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the movie or taking meaning from it. But writing off everyone who doesn’t and who is negatively affected by it is pretty self-absorbed.
It made me think some about my own “family” as well, i.e. my voices. However so many of them do not feel like they are there to protect me. They can be very malicious. I have been killed/tortured/abused/etc by a number of them in my dreams.
@rhubot there were also “Sybil” 2007 and “Frankie&Alice” 2010 both awarded and popular.
Sybil was a disaster, to be fair. It was based off someone who didn’t even actually have DID (it was a fraud) and created this whole movement of therapists “uncovering repressed traumas” and bringing forth alters that didn’t exist. It also lead to things like criminals claiming they had DID and weren’t responsible for their actions. It gave disastrous bad press to people who actually had the disorder.
Sybil was a fictionalization of the life of a woman who faked did for media attention.
That’s the thing. Before I met people with DID, I was pretty convinced it was a bogus disorder and that people who claimed to have it were doing so to get attention or avoid responsibility for their actions, which were generally reprehensible.
If by some weird chance it actually was real, then they were dangerous and unpredictable and I’d be best off not making friends with or interacting with them. In any case, wouldn’t want to work with one, live near one, date one, have my niece or nephew play with the child of one.
That’s stigma. That’s not based off of reality. It’s based off of media. What I knew about DID, even though I had read scholarly articles on it, was deeply informed by media portrayal.
Well, I think this topic has officially run its course.