Schizophrenia In Take Shelter

Take Shelter is an interesting, emotional movie with a normal family man who suffers with an imaginary storm apocalypse. Mental illness can affect a person in a very dramatic way, creating difficulties in life. Curtis is a man with a good life, at least that is what is close friend tells him, until the threatening apocalypse storm nightmares begin. Curtis experiences hallucinations of his loved ones hurting and attacking him, rain that resembles motor oil, swarms of threatening and alarming birds, tornadoes. It is obvious that Curtis needs serious mental help but he needs his wife and daughter to help him overcome this illness.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that that causes thought, emotion, and behavioral breakdowns leading to a withdrawal

from reality. Curtis LaForche begins to experience vivid nightmares of a devastating storm and that harms his wife and daughter. Mentally unstable, Curtis recognizes that there is something very wrong happening and that he needs help once he wakes up from one of the vivid nightmares, having urinated in the bed from fear. Curtis decides to get help from a psychiatrist to help him get an understanding of what is happening to him and control it.
In the beginning of the film, the director Jeff Nichols, creates a sense of confusion for the viewer, confusion that the viewer shares with Curtis. Nichols does well by putting the viewer in Curtis position. The viewers do not know what scene is a nightmare and what scene is a part of reality. When the nightmares first begin to happen, Curtis tries to hide them from everyone in his life. A scene begins calm and builds up to be horrific. Before Curtis and the viewer can make sense of what is happening the scene switches back to a normal work day for Curtis. Nichols has the audience and Curtis sharing the confusion of what is happening to him. (Daschke par.3)
The apocalypse storms are very destructive and frightful.

Curtis experiences a vast amount of different tragedies in his nightmares. In his first dream that he endured, a storm came and the rain was thick, black and resembled motor oil. In Curtis’s second dream, his dog turns on him when the storm makes the dog go crazy and attack him. When Curtis wakes up his arm is in pain throughout the day from where his dog supposedly attacked him. The third dream Curtis and his daughter Hannah are driving through the storm and the rain is so thick that he can barely see out of his windshield. Someone is standing in the middle of the road and when Curtis swerves off the road to avoid hitting them, him and Hannah wreck and someone breaks open the window of the truck and steals Hannah away. Curtis tries to fight back but is unsuccessful when one of the figures in his dream begins choking him. In the fourth dream, Curtis walks into the living room where Hannah is staring out the window, he looks and someone is standing there looking in and then tries to break into the house. Curtis and Hannah hide behind the furniture and the furniture begins to float and Curtis loses oxygen and can no longer breathe. The fifth dream Curtis’s wife Samantha wakes up to Curtis struggling, seizing, and bleeding from his mouth. Curtis explains that his dream was about his good friend Dewart attacking him with a pickaxe. Curtis’s sixth dream he walks into the kitchen where Samantha is standing looking

disturbing as she looks to reach for a knife. Curtis comes back to reality and is disturbed when his wife walks in and touches his hand. The seventh dream, Hannah goes into the road and Curtis goes after her where the birds start flying in an absurd way and swoop down at Hannah and Curtis. It then begins to rain dead birds. Derek Daschke in his film review states how Curtis’s nightmares are disturbing and harmful, “The storms are massive and uncanny, producing unrelenting lightning strikes, an oily rain, flocks of erratic birds, tornadoes, and, worst of all, violent behavior in the people he loves (as well as his dog)” (Daschke par.3).
The nightmares were shot in a stunning and fearful way, very vivid. The way they were shot gave the visual effect of a horror-film feel that was disturbing but exciting while still shooting the dramatic and emotional side to the film. John Petrakis describes the way the film draws in the viewer, “Its beauty lies in the subtle way it sucks the audience in, opening up doors of possibility that we weren't aware of ten minutes earlier” (Petrakis par.3). The film is very complex but has a slow pace to it while keeping viewers interested to see what comes next. The audience has to live through the nightmares with Curtis and experience what he is going through. The lighting throughout the film set the mood, especially during the scenes with the apocalypse storms with dark colors and unnerving shadows.
The last scene of the movie Curtis, Samantha, and Hannah are on a vacation to the beach, the vacation that the psychiatrist suggested they go on. Hannah stares out at the ocean and then signs “Storm” they all stare out at the sea and see the frightening storm approaching. When it begins to rain, it rains the thick rain that resembles motor oil, except this time Samantha sees it too. The ending of this movie could mean different things, that Curtis has been right throughout the movie. This scene could also be interpreted as another dream that Curtis is having that is just less violent and Samantha and Hannah can see the storm just as Curtis has been, he is no longer alone with the thoughts and nightmares. The imaginary violent figures Curtis endures throughout the nightmare could be a symbolic way of showing the storm taking over Curtis and his families lives. The director could be trying to portray the image that Curtis now has the power to fight the mental illness with the help of his family next to him.
Curtis’s vivid, horrific nightmares create many problems for him from getting fired from his job, arguments with his wife, and loss of sleep. Curtis is not sure what is happening to him, he does not know if he is going insane or experiencing the first signs of Schizophrenia, he needs the help of his wife and psychiatrist to figure it out. The director does an excellent job of keeping the excitement and fear continuing throughout the movie. Mental illness is very difficult to overcome support from loved ones is key to survive the illness. Take Shelter does an amazing work of fascinating, suspenseful, and emotional portrayal of mental illness.