James Ward Byrkit’s 2014 film Coherence is remarkable for the ghosts, vampires, demons, and other creepy beings which are absent from the film. Byrkit instead uses everyday people to induce the type of nervous angst most of us have experienced when we come to realize that we should really, ultimately trust no one. In doing so, he creates a film of abject terror which brings to mind Stephen Daedalus’ thoughts in Portrait: “Terror is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the secret cause.”
About the presenterJ A White
Jules White teaches English literature, humanities, and psychology and literature at Morgan State University in Baltimore MD. He is currently working on a proposal on the use of archetypes in adult gaming, specifically video games and slot machines.