“Images” is a horror movie directed by Robert Altman and starring Susannah York. Horror is not a genre usually associated with Altman, but his foray into this field is effective.

A children’s author, Cathryn, is experiencing hallucinations and delusions. Her husband (Rene Auberjonois) takes her away to a cottage in the country, which is where she lived as a child. Her experiences continue, and in an effort to be rid of the people who keep haunting her, she decides to kill her hallucinations.

Altman dispenses with any uncertainty about what the mysterious voices and people are, giving no suggestion that they are anything other than the main character’s own mind playing tricks on her. I found this an interesting way of approaching the story, but it does not alter the uncertainty and eeriness of the events. This is not a movie where there are jump scares. Instead, there is an atmosphere of unease, which is enhanced by York’s depiction of her character, and the way she reacts to things.

 York depicts Cathryn beautifully, illustrating the wild swinging of Cathryn’s moods. One moment she is happy and cheerful, the next she is solemn, or angry, or screaming in fright. She reacts to her hallucinations in the same way. When the French character Rene (Marcel Bozzuffi) begins to appear, she is sometimes calm, sometimes happy to see him, sometimes scared and screaming or running away. You would think the last would be the most logical reaction, given that Rene is apparently someone she used to know who is dead. However she also has quite matter-of-fact conversations about how he is dead and shouldn’t be around. She also has sex with him and talks about a previous relationship, which was sexual. So, the question is, has Cathryn been unfaithful to Hugh her husband or did her relationships with Rene never actually happen? This remains unanswered, as there is no outside voice to verify what Cathryn thinks, sees, or experiences.

A neighbour called Marcel (Hugh Millais) comes to visit, bringing his daughter Susannah (Cathryn Harrison). When they are private Marcel begins to come on to Cathryn. She acts like this has happened before, and again swings between accepting, liking it, or pushing him away from her. His daughter asks Cathryn if they can be friends, but she also asks if Cathryn is having an affair with her father. Again, is Marcel propositioning her? Has she or is she reciprocating? Or is it all in her head? (Marcel and his daughter do appear to exist.)

Cathryn keeps seeing herself, as if she is at different stages in time. She looks from a cliff when they are arriving to see herself arrive at the house. From the house she sees herself standing on the cliff. Over time other her gets closer and closer, shouting at her to leave, get away. It seems to represent an increased fragmentation of her psyche, that she cannot tell which her is actually her.

She finds a jigsaw puzzle in a cupboard, that she says was there from her childhood. She and Susannah try to complete it. At one point Susannah says she can’t complete the puzzle as too many of the pieces are missing. The jigsaw is of a house – a house is often seen to be representative of a person, and so the house is symbolic of Cathryn, who definitely has more than a few pieces missing.

There is a recurring motif throughout of windchimes or bells, in the car, at the house, and Cathryn is constantly looking at them. There seems to be a suggestion that the bells are ringing alarms – she doesn’t really heed this or understand it though.

Cathryn decides that the best way to get rid of her hallucinatory boyfriends is to kill them. This seems to work, and hallucination Marcel and Rene are dispatched. Other people enter the house and don’t see the bodies, confirming they are not really there. So Cathryn decides that this will work with other her.

Hugh has been called back to town for a work reason, but tells her he will only be a day or two. After she dispatches all of her hallucinations, she decides she will join him in town. She calls him on the phone and tells him she is coming, but the audience can clearly hear that the phone is still ringing at the other end, indicating she is only imagining speaking to him. I won’t spoil the ending, though I think from what I’ve said it won’t be hard to work out what has happened.

An interesting aspect of this film is the naming of the characters: Susannah York plays Cathryn, and Cathryn Harrison plays Susannah. Rene Auberjonois plays Hugh. Hugh Millais plays Marcel, Marcel Bozzuffi plays Rene. It is a metafictional way of highlighting the way the protagonist’s reality is completely scrambled.

A big contribution to the sinister atmosphere is the music, composed by John Williams. His previous credits include Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Indiana Jones, among many others. The music for this film is not big and lush, however, but sounds synthesized, atonal. I have heard similar music from the time period of this film but it really works in this context – a fractured backdrop to a fractured mind.

The camera work inside the cottage is very effective, as characters move in and out of rooms. Sometimes one character becomes another, or they just appear as soon as another character has left the room. The cottage is not large, and there is a definite sense of claustrophobia in the closeness of the characters, appearing right next to Cathryn, popping out of a doorway unexpectedly.

There are several voiceovers of Cathryn reciting the book she is supposedly writing, a children’s book about a unicorn. (Apparently Susannah York actually wrote such a book, and these are excerpts from that book). I wasn’t entirely sure how this adds to the movie, however. It doesn’t seem to be particularly mirroring her own journey, which certainly does not end in success.

This film had a relatively low budget ($807000 US) and for that the director has given us a sad, scary and bleak view into the mind of a person who is seriously mentally ill, possibly with schizophrenia. What is most clear is that a person suffering from an illness like this is a person who deserves sympathy. It would be very frightening to be experiencing such things. The entire cast are superb in “Images” and help to make it an excellent film. I highly recommend it.