TALES OF TERROR
"The Case of M. Valdemar" (1963; d. Roger Corman, w. Richard Matheson)

Title Mister (Val de Mar Spanish "Valley of the Sea," ie deepest-deepest unconscious) hypnotized (colored panels flashing on face multifaceted personality, characters gathered at start of tale constituent parts 2B sorted out as play advances) by mesmerist Mr Carmichael (scheming Unconscious, which wants to subdue Reason for own ends), camera craning up + back to take in whole gathering (overview: various figures assembled to play out interior drama): Val, Carm, Mrs Val (Helene; cf other Corman Helenes in The Undead + The Terror, she "Bright One" of Gk myth + Fustian idealized "face that launched…") + Dr Elliot James (2 1st names the undifferentiated boy: fantasy his, of accession to the father’s place), latter skeptical of "perilous toying w/t human mind" (cf earlier Corman X + later The Trip: easy to see which side RC on, + discouraging how fuddyduddies always prevail), dying Val grateful method alleviates pain (of living: art [color-panels à la X similar] + imagination getting us thru the day) of apparent brain cancer (malady consciousness itself, deteriorating as play begins).

Carmichael’s only payment deathbed "favor" (experiment + soon-extracted blackmail 1 + same: desire to forestall death + lust for 29-yr-old Helene similar objectives for 70-yr-old confirmed bachelor) – to entrance Val at point of death (remain in hypnagogic state btwn after/life as btwn un/consciousness + im/maturity) so to discover what lies beyond (in adulthood, stunted Carm precursor to Eric Idle’s "Nudge, nudge" loser); fed-up Dr stomps out (physic/body shirked on death/dream drive) + Helene complains of state of marriage "since that man entered our life" (insinuation of "unhealthy" relationship further "queering" him, Val closer in age to Carm than own wife doing same for him), Doc admitting "I too look at you" (longingly, as does C, latter mirroring grotesquerie of late-breaking oedipal desire for 36-yr-old also-bachelor).

Val makes own deathbed request, for Helene to marry Doc on his passing (his "will" teleological pull of drama, Carm personification of complex which must be worked out before that can occur) + vows refusal to die until her happiness assured (corollary Her hapiness not assured til he dead, she similarly still attached to old-enuf-2B-her Father – complex she must also see to conclusion before engaging w/ a "peer" [still 7 yrs her senior]); near death, Carm induces "dreamless sleep" (dulling God/conscience so instinct may assume primacy, and mind entering non-REM down-time 2B followed by lucid dreaming, in which dreamer re-engages w/ drm as active agent) + moves in on Helene (late-breaking oedipal coup for perversely overgrown boy) before Val’s gutteral interruption (pre-verbal body noise archetypal taboo raising head).

"I was asleep but now I am dead" descent to deeper level of unconsciousness, communing/identifying now w/ ancestral-archetypal realm ("multitudes of people" he sees there), "dead but still aware" (unconsc but still wielding influence on waking life; also, conscience Carm only thot he'd transcended, as similar God), causing Helene to faint (during which seasons change, according to film grammar: real non-REM sleep, she 2nd consc’ss in which story takes place, which must similarly be subdued before next stage can be reached); while Carm lounges downstairs (in eye-opening, seemingly uncharacteristic red jacket: the fop reborn, adopting color of desire), apparently resident now (accession to father/Val’s place, if not yet his i.d., and the complex gaining prominence in psyche), Doc demands he pull plug ("dreamless sleep" Doc’s own inability to marry/unite un/conscious states, Carm once-useful intermediary who has overstayed welcome, as Doc’s own adolescence) till thwarted by agonized Val’s command for Helene to "marry Mr Carmichael" (latter’s blackmail for keeping him alive; Val’s unmoving lips while speaking as tho other 2 hypnotized into thinking him alive ["voice" really Carm’s]: Val mental fixation [only plane on which he exists anymore], vestige both lovers petitioning superego to archive so they may get on w/ it).

Impatient Carm imposes self on Helene (not-the-father [boy’s spiritual self-img ½way btwn self + dad] moving in on mom again Elliot’s psychic convenience, modeling for him by doing what ego won’t permit), when Val wakes (Self re-engaged on offense to propriety: time to wrap up dream of prolonged adolescence) +, putrefying (Old Order caving in, as conscience/consciousness on achievement of oedipal goal), kills Carm (latter taking fall for ascendant Doc) as Elliot arrives to rescue H (intrigue occurring in his absence dream-characters acting out archetypal drama for him), final img of dead Carm w/ gooey Val-corpse on top also taking out coded queer to allow hetero breakthru, shock-conclusion horror of such a "dissipated" relationship.