THRILLER
"Child's Play"
(1960; d. Arthur Hiller, tp. Robert Dozier)

After out-of-sequence teaser of 11-yr-old Hank hunting "Black Bart" in woods (primal, un-civilized nature: e[x]ternal as well as in-) w/ rifle (quest focused on phallus + its proper use; actor Tommy Nolan still firing away in later Thriller "Parasite Mansion," this time to alert female to necessary introversion) + heading for waterfall Rubicon (on eve of adolescence), begins proper w/ boy balancing across log (negotiating passage along another phallus: charting natural course) + mom emerging from log cabin (natural housing: the mind [positioned at back of his head], built of phalluses: the patriarchy + passive [horizontal] male psyche) to call him in to eat (she the nurturing anima + mother-attachment, not fully contained); wrapped up in fantasy of pursuit (incomplete psg into conscious, rational adult world), he ignores her, and falls (neglecting inner-voice/anima in vengeful masculine obsession leads to failure/downfall).

Father Bart (kid pursuing shadow-dad – only one he’s known – real + archetypal: own irrational, violent masculinity he must reconcile w/ regenerative femininity in creating own mature i.d.) disdains son’s play (underlying guilt for neglecting him while holed up writing: similarly self-absorbed) yet refuses wife (own feeling-side for non-fiction scribe)’s plea to take him hunting (join him in quest: mutual need, son his shadow too) today (imperative that both resolve situation before it worsens); son in turn trades toy pistol for real rifle (transition + growth of phallus dawning erectile capability, weapon shot from behind wall rack suspending object in air, rendering it iconic) + heads out on own hunt while parents argue (psychic agent acting out internal issue in order to bring it to consciousness).

Quarrel on both nature of occupancy (took cabin to write article [retreat into mind to analyze subject, summer/dream break from school/consciousness]: blueprint for Shining [w/ similarities also to ’68 Bergman Hour o/t Wolf]) + its effectiveness (wife sounding-board alerting him to flaw in process) and coincidental effect on isolated boy (two subjects one: himself/masculinity in house built of + housing phalluses + surrounded by same) + mom as well (damage to anima of husband/men’s monomania) moves to living room (subject hitting where they live) w/ boy’s discarded toy conspicuous in background (ignorance of step in maturity + warning of danger if not recognized: own self at turning point, futile if not acknowledged) then to study, where Bart types (issue invading unconscious fortress to which consc’ss w/drawn), their verbal volleys cross-cut w/ boy’s gunfire.

Husband’s firm exterior cracked by wife’s frank "It wd be nice if we made love once in a while": issue both concerning + engendering sexual dysfunction (house constructed of horizontal phalluses in midst of verticals unrealized potential + passivity amid fertility), inwardness failure to relate to world (son’s dream-life) + Other (fem self), necessitating boy’s adoption of anti-fertility not-the-phallus (Puritan America – log cabin house, again – foundation for own obsession w/ sublimated sex + violence).

After crossing waterfall (successfully negotiating dangerous psg; alone) against elder fisherman’s warning (he mature masculine version of mother-feminine, "angler" forever seeking nourishment in psychic stream), boy accosts 2nd f’man/"Black Bart" (threat to ego/exterior of introspection going on back at cabin) + sits w/ him while mulling fate (till parents reach understanding); eventually attempts Wm Tell stunt 1st perpetrated on kid at previous-yr camp (target now adult the threat to maturity now child figuratively eliminated), for which he was kicked out (expulsion from child-world), incident hidden from father (consciousness, ego unaware of advancement), who was away (unconscious acting out psychic drama while ego in absentia), for fear of enraging him (wife also mental censor keeping him in dark: acceptance of boy’s fantasy-play keeping him in imaginative womb while simultaneously working to engage him in adult world).

"Black Bart" keeps death at bay by pointing out Wm Tell shot apple off son’s head as test of his faith (boy’s bkwd interpretation dad’s own misdirected values, elder offering proper framework for idealism: masking oneself in vulnerability rather’n power + letting adult/maturity hold dominion), intercepted by real Bart when tactic fails (crossing river w/ wife integrated psg; guided at 1st by spent shells [spilled seed + exhausted, blind shots in dark ñ or at phantom adversary] then by 1st angler [own mediating wisdom]), who takes apple/onus off not-the-father’s head + places it on own, trusting son/nature’s aim 2B true (archetypal father’s approval of phallic proficiency); once vindicated, promises to take son hunting, rite bridging real + internal boy’s psg into manhood (control of phallus/dedication to uniting w/ the feminine other).

2nd Thriller episode revises 1st ("Twisted Image")’s ending where unpenitent father reunited w/ male-endangered daughter, union here of entire family possible, apparently, only after male consciously confronts own culpability in disorder, situated now in bright, natural outdoors vs "Img’s" dark, subterranean city.