SHRINK CHAT: A Place Among the Dead, Mandy & The Blackcoat’s Daughter

Why is it so hard to walk away from a narcissist, even when the door is standing open?

Content note: discussion of narcissistic and emotional abuse and recovery, a film about revenge on an abusive father, and a film in which a teenager kills her best friend.

Cath opens with Horror Facts on Zombieland, then our buddy watch: A Place Among the Dead, Juliet Landau’s genre-bending film about growing up under the sway of narcissism, with cameos from Gary Oldman, Ron Perlman, Lance Henriksen and Anne Rice. It’s the vampire-as-narcissist conversation we promised in our vampire episode. After some very late (and very horror) Christmas gifts, we run through The Perfect Host with David Hyde Pierce, Girl with Bella Thorne and Mickey Rourke, Oz Perkins’ The Blackcoat’s Daughter, a New Year’s Eve virtual watch party of Mandy, HBO’s The Undoing and Blumhouse’s The Lie with Joey King.

Therapists Shannon and Cathy talk about the seduction of a narcissist’s fixation and the emptiness when it moves on, why survivors go back, how to support someone without judging them or focusing on outcomes, how the voices of our parents become the agreements we live by, and why “the door to evil is always open” is the right metaphor for recovery.

Covered in this episode:

• Zombieland (2009) in Horror Facts with Cath
• A Place Among the Dead (2020), our buddy watch, and Juliet Landau’s Q and A
• Vampires as narcissists and the fear of losing beauty
• Why survivors go back, and how to help without judging
• Dr. Ramani Durvasula on breaking the agreements we inherit
• Very late horror Christmas gifts
• The Perfect Host (2010) and David Hyde Pierce
• Girl (2020): Bella Thorne, Mickey Rourke and a revenge story
• The Blackcoat’s Daughter and the slow-burn possession film
• Mandy (2018), Nicolas Cage and a virtual New Year’s Eve party
• The Undoing and the charming narcissist
• The Lie (2018), Joey King and Peter Sarsgaard

Clinical themes: narcissistic abuse, trauma bonding and returning to an abuser, nonjudgmental support, internalized parental voices, idealization and abandonment, isolation and connection during the pandemic.

Corrections and updates: A Place Among the Dead was written by Juliet Landau and Deverill Weekes and directed by Landau. The psychologist on the post-screening panel was Dr. Ramani Durvasula. Hugh Grant is British, not one of America’s sweethearts. The Blackcoat’s Daughter premiered in 2015 and was released in 2017.

Related episodes:

• VAMPIRES: Real Vampires, Emotional Vampires, Daybreakers & Thirst
• PSYCHOLOGY: Gypsy Rose Blanchard, Dee Dee & Munchausen by Proxy
• SHRINK CHAT: The Frozen Ground, The Undoing, Prom Night & Santa Jaws

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Two licensed therapists, one forensic psychologist, one clinical LMFT, take apart the minds behind the crimes.

Until then... sleep safe. 😴
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