Pitch for an imaginary movie: Visual Disturbances

Svetlovska

“ Seeing things that aren't there might be one of the first symptoms of Lewy body dementia. People with Lewy body dementia might see shapes, animals or people that aren't there. Hallucinations involving sounds, smells or touch are possible.”

Pitch for an imaginary movie: a retired cop, succumbing to Lewy Body dementia in his care facility, has visions of demons he sees killing the other residents as they sleep. Blaming his dementia, no one believes him, thinking the deaths are natural, the demons existing only in his disintegrating mind. Then again, maybe he isn’t just seeing things - but seeing things…

…this started off as another Noinputmixer jam, to which I added AUM File Player loops from Arpie, thank you, @Edward_Alexander for pointing me at that excellent free app, but as soon as I made a bassline with Flowtones and Atom to go with it, it started sounding like some kind of 1980s John Carpenter slasher fest, so I guess I leaned into that…

I know that the pain of losing a loved one to dementia is not imaginary for some on this forum, and I in no way seek to trivialise it. Trust me when I say this idea comes from a very real place of my own fear about this; greater, I think, than my fear of death. The idea, the possibility, of losing myself, losing the ability to discern what is real and what is not, is truly terrifying to me.

I have always thought that the noblest purpose of horror in fiction, movies, or music, and it’s’ only real justification, is to act as rehearsal and exorcism of our darkest thoughts and fears, a way of confronting and learning what it is to be mortal, time limited, ever dying, as we all are, a few optimistic body hacking tech bros notwithstanding.

Thus, in the spirit of confronting that which terrifies me the most. I truly think this idea, of literally no longer being able to trust the evidence of one’s own eyes, especially for a former investigator and professional witness, (me, and my protagonist both) could, in all seriousness, make a terrifying and ethically sound movie about the subjective experience of losing oneself in such a fashion, whilst also being something providing the catharsis of entertainment. The two motives are not contradictory.

So, maybe ‘enjoy’ isn’t the word here, but as ever, your thoughts are appreciated.

AlterEgo_UK

Another powerful piece of music. Love the bass sound. Very dark and fits your description very well (or vice versa!)

Ben

Another stellar effort. You’re kind of taking the baton from @LinearLineman in terms of production.
To be clear no criticism or judgement intended. My mother was diagnosed with Lewy body toward the end of her life.
She had very vivid hallucinations that she could describe in detail. I’m in the medical field so I would hear others’ reports of loved ones dealing with the same.
It was striking to me how complete strangers would report near identical perceived circumstances. In detail. It made the hair on my neck stand up. (dramatic I know)
It wasn’t always negative. She had what’s been described as “Lilliputian hallucinations.” Odd term but I didn’t make it up. She would talk to and interact with “little people” peeking at her from behind bushes etc.
There’s much more to that story but don’t want to distract from your work.
Thanks for what you do.

Svetlovska

Hi @Ben, thanks for your listen, and comment. I’m glad that your mother’s experience of visual hallucination wasn’t wholly terrible. It is as you say deeply unsettling to think that different people report identical phenomena, almost as if there was some objective reality to them independent of the observer.

I think my own very real and deep adult fear of this particular form of dementia may stem from my experiences as a child.

Without going into detail, it wasn’t the greatest of childhoods (there may be a reason why as a police officer I chose to specialise in child protection) and for quite some time as a child, I suffered from vivid night terrors, and sleepwalking.

One feature of the terror, which has stayed with me all my life, and likewise is apparently something which is commonly experienced by many, is hypnagogic hallucinations of scale, aka Alice In Wonderland syndrome, or dysmetropsia, where angles in my visual field would be distorted, and objects would appear hugely and violently altered in scale. I have a vivid memory of a chair in the corner of my bedroom becoming massive, and appearing to rush into extreme closeup, while the whole room twisted and turned like the deck of a ship in a storm. It was very frightening to me.

After a time, the intense visual and other sensory experiences went away, leaving only very disturbing nightmares, which persisted into adulthood, but I think that experience has left me with a particular sensitivity and sense of horror toward this specific manifestation of dementia, and an enduring fear that as I enter the later stages of my life, I may fall victim to such. Making art out of fear has always been a release for me, so, yeah.

This.

GeoTony

Disturbing… which in this context is obviously a compliment 😊

lasselu

@Ben said:
It wasn’t always negative. She had what’s been described as “Lilliputian hallucinations.” Odd term but I didn’t make it up. She would talk to and interact with “little people” peeking at her from behind bushes etc.

Oh my, that's exactly what my mother described toward the end of her life except she always saw them in coffee cups and glasses...

Ben

@lasselu said:

@Ben said:
It wasn’t always negative. She had what’s been described as “Lilliputian hallucinations.” Odd term but I didn’t make it up. She would talk to and interact with “little people” peeking at her from behind bushes etc.

Oh my, that's exactly what my mother described toward the end of her life except she always saw them in coffee cups and glasses...

There were animals too. One time my mom was asking this guy that she said had a bandana tied over one eye why he brought his dogs in the room.
I was in the room. No dogs, no guy with a bandana. They were having a lively conversation.