Movie Psychics - Villains, Freaks Or Heroes?

By Anthon St. Maarten

Psychics and mediums in the movies are traditionally depicted as shrewd, flaky or simply evil. To this day it remains the exception to the rule to find a decent film or television show that genuine psychics will be able to relate to. Very few films in the archives offer a reasonably authentic representation of the ordinary psychic’s true life experiences.

The range of stereotypical stock characters in film is almost never-ending: from the typical dumb blondes and computer-hacking geeks, to corrupt Catholic priests, zany black cops, Las Vegas mobsters, flamboyant gay men, conspiring politicians, sex-obsessed teenagers and bombastic corporate executives with fat cigars. Of course, psychics and mediums also make the perfect stereotype. We are ideal to be cast in the role of the satanic villain, or merely as an odd source of comic relief. For example, Whoopi Goldberg’s madcap portrayal of Oda Mae Brown, the fraudulent medium in Ghost (1990), was so well-received after the film’s release that she won a Golden Globe for her hilarious antics, as well as an Academy Award.

Hollywood relies on these stereotypes to increase box office success. Portraying misrepresented characters in a one-dimensional manner has a much wider audience appeal. Sadly, it also leads to ignorance, misconception, prejudice and discrimination. It all began way back with silent movies like The Spanish Dancer (1923), in which the famous Polish femme fatale, Pola Negri, portrays her exotic version of the typical Gypsy fortune teller, and later Blithe Spirit (1945), the entertaining British comedy starring Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati, an eccentric medium who hosts a whacky séance

From there it pretty much went downhill. Films like The Black Widow (1947) involves a fortune-telling spy from an Asian country, intent on world domination, and The Village of the Damned (1960) features wicked little blonde children, with glowing eyes and psychic powers, threatening to destroy mankind forever. In my youth there were hardly any characters on the big screen I would consider inspiring, or at least somewhat realistic role-models for a gifted child. At the time films like Blood Orgy of the She Devils (1972), Psychic Killer (1975) and Carrie (1976) were the typical money-spinners.

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