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Transnational Horror Cinema pp 159–176Cite as

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Scary Truths: Morality and the Differently Abled Mind in Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom

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Abstract

Marchbanks challenges the common construction of Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier as a provocateur preoccupied with offending his audiences’ sensibilities by incorporating graphic violence and explicit, sexual material into his films. In the miniseries The Kingdom (1994, 1997), von Trier deploys such elements not only to amuse and shock, but also to illuminate ethical failures within contemporary medicine, particularly as concern patients with non-normative bodies and minds. His work tests the limits of the educated and able-minded character’s ability to respond to stress in a productive way, and provides a complementary, complex reappraisal of the individual whose mental faculties have been permanently compromised.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. English Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA

    Paul Rae Marchbanks

Authors
  1. Paul Rae Marchbanks
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Film, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

    Sophia Siddique

  2. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA

    Raphael Raphael

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Marchbanks, P.R. (2016). Scary Truths: Morality and the Differently Abled Mind in Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom . In: Siddique, S., Raphael, R. (eds) Transnational Horror Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58417-5_8

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