• Reviews
    • Watch This
    • VODepths
  • Humor
  • On the Marquee
  • Looking Back
    • Classic Corner
    • Anniversary
  • Film Fests
Crooked Marquee
  • Reviews
    • Watch This
    • VODepths
  • Humor
  • On the Marquee
  • Looking Back
    • Classic Corner
    • Anniversary
  • Film Fests
Home
Looking Back

Mental Illness in William Peter Blatty’s ‘The Ninth Configuration’

Feb 6th, 2017 Christine Makepeace
Mental Illness in William Peter Blatty’s ‘The Ninth Configuration’

The loss of a creative voice often prompts a revisiting of their works. In January, William Peter Blatty, best known as author of The Exorcist, passed away. And while The Exorcist is certainly a film worthy of endless discussion, my favorite Blatty work is 1980’s The Ninth Configuration. Written and directed by Blatty himself and based on his own novel, Ninth Configuration is an eerie creation exploring faith, philosophy, and mental illness. This under-seen and complex film has a depth that lends itself to multiple viewings, and this past rewatch left me thinking about mental health and its portrayal in cinema.

In many ways a product of its time, Configuration’s take on the subject of insanity occasionally leans toward the antiquated. The story focuses on a group of men housed in an old castle. Left to work through their issues, there’s a sense that they may simply be cured of their ailments. A film like The Babadook embraces a more contemporary take, asserting that mental illness isn’t something to be outrun or cast off — it lives with you and requires a watchful eye. There’s also a monologue by a doctor that hearkens back to the final scene of Psycho; it teeters on info-dump and may feel unnecessary to modern audiences due to how commonplace the subject matter is today.

But there’s an aspect of Configuration that feels progressive even when compared to recent releases. While many films use mental illness as the basis for a twist or big reveal — something that distorts the reality of the story — Configuration is upfront and uses its characters’ tenuous grip on reality to explore bigger themes.

Parallels can easily be drawn between it and 2010’s Shutter Island. (Spoilers for both films ahead.) A desolate facility filled with mysterious and troubled characters populate both but, to its detriment, Shutter Island‘s effectiveness hinges on keeping information from the viewer, information that changes the narrative. Instead of embracing Leonardo DiCaprio’s distorted worldview and using that rift to tell a story, it chooses to let the new information invalidate everything he’s experienced.

Early on in Configuration, we see signs that our protagonist Colonel Kane, played by Stacy Keach, is struggling with reality. This manifests in dreams and erratic behavior, coming to a head with the reveal of the true extent of his dissociative disorder. In Shutter Island, a very similar reveal sits at the film’s center — but in this case, it’s the goal of the story, and it’s where the narrative ends; pulling the rug from underneath both viewer and protagonist takes precedence. Configuration tackles so much more, and is less about developing a character defined by “insanity” and instability, and more a vehicle to discuss larger, more complex ideas. Once viewer and characters are brought together and offered the same information, the story changes gears and careens head-on into discussions of God, the afterlife, and trauma.

Recent films like last year’s The Disappointments Room (which touts a similar “twist” to Shutter Island) and Lights Out (with its utilization of the common haunting-as-allegory-for-mental-illness trope) presented modern takes on loss of sanity and self. Interesting though those methods of storytelling may be, many thrillers and horror films that employ the mental illness allegory tiptoe around the subject rather than attack it directly. And, like with Disappointments Room, fictional depictions of insanity frequently rely on the viewer’s manipulation. Genre films often treat emotional and mental disturbance as a finish line, avoiding the journey.

The Ninth Configuration’s mix of farcical humor, theatrical staging, and atheistic discussions make it a unique film, but the way it uses a roster of men with troubled emotional states is what makes this film truly noteworthy. They aren’t the punchline, they’re the whole story.


Christine Makepeace lives in Austin, the Shutter Island of Texas.

Facebook Twitter Google+
Christine Makepeace

Christine Makepeace

Trending
Aug 27th 11:00 AM
Looking Back

Classic Corner: The Ranown Westerns

Jan 18th 8:09 AM
Looking Back

“To Be Deceived is a Woman’s Crime”: A Look Back at the Female Prisoner Scorpion Series

Jan 20th 8:00 AM
Movies

Thoughts on a Biden-Era Cinema

Mar 30th 9:00 AM
Reviews

Review: Godzilla vs. Kong

Oct 21st 9:00 AM
Reviews

Review: The French Dispatch

Oct 25th 9:00 AM
Movies

The Horror of Take Shelter

Oct 27th 9:00 AM
Looking Back

The Catholic Fairytale Vampire of Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos

Nov 3rd 9:00 AM
Looking Back

A Very Harvey’s Hellhole Thanksgiving

Nov 4th 9:00 AM
Reviews

Review: Finch

Nov 24th 9:00 AM
Looking Back

Forgotten Silver and Peter Jackson’s Mockumentary Roots

blank
cmpopcorn_white3.svg
  • Company
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Writers Guidelines
  • Members
    • Login
    • SignUp
    • Forums
telephone icon [email protected]
envelope icon [email protected]
© 2014-2022 Crooked™ Publishing
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
blankblank
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}