Psychorama, also called the precon process, is the act of communicating subliminal information through film by flashing images on the screen so quickly that they cannot be perceived by the conscious mind. It is a subset of subliminal messaging that is applied only through non-verbal messages in film. The name most commonly refers to a "gimmick" in commercial movie production (sometimes using the marketing phrase "filmed in psychorama" as a play on the more common " filmed in Technicolor").

History

In 1958, a film called ''My World Dies Screaming'' (later retitled '' Terror in the Haunted House'') marked

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

's first attempt to make use of this technique. At different points in this film, a skull is flashed to inspire terror, a snake to inspire hate, two hearts to inspire love, and large letters spelling out "blood" to create fear. It was produced by William Edwards, written by Robert C. Dennis, and directed by Harold Daniels. It starred

Gerald Mohr Gerald Mohr (June 11, 1914 – November 9, 1968) was an American radio, film, and television character actor and frequent leading man, who appeared in more than 500 radio plays, 73 films, and over 100 television shows. Early years Mohr w ...

and Cathy O'Donnell. Makeup was handled by Harry Thomas, who worked on a number of

Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cl ...

movies in the 50s. The plot concerned a woman who is brought by her husband to live in an old house that she saw many times before in her nightmares, and she desperately tries to get him to leave the house before something terrible happens. This technique was called an example of the "pure hype and hucksterism" surrounding subliminal messaging in the 1950s. The following year, 1959, saw another film produced using this same format, titled '' A Date with Death''. This film also starred Gerald Mohr, coincidentally. The technique of psychorama has also been featured in more recent films, including ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitt ...

'' and ''

Fight Club ''Fight Club'' is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the Fight Club (novel), 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays the unnamed T ...

''. In the latter film, Tyler Durden splices images of pornography into family movies that play at the movie theater he works at as a part-time projectionist. The band

Evanescence Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer and musician Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording independent EPs as a duo in the late 90's, and a demo CD, Evanescence released their de ...

used this technique in their Sweet Sacrifice music video. In it, images of bones, skulls, houses, fires, and videos of the band performing are flashed at various intervals. Evanescence also utilized samples from "My World Dies Screaming" in some versions of their song "Understanding", the demo of "Whisper" and the introduction to the album Origin. The TV show ''

Babylon 5 ''Babylon 5'' is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Televi ...

'' featured an in-universe reference to supposed psychorama (the words "Trust the Corps" and "The Corps is Your Friend" appear on screen for four frames), although it is debatable whether intentional in-universe references are true psychorama. The name "psychorama" has also been used as the title of a film festival for the psycho film genre.

References

External links

* {{Hidden messages Communication