Fearful elements of Interstellar

What makes Interstellar stand out is its ability to trigger fear and anxiety by unconventional methods. Stunning imagery aided by intense foreshadowing soundtracks is a rare cinematographic mix defining horror as opposed to fountains of blood and never-ending spells of silence followed by an eardrum tearing clash. The terrifying impact of Interstellar would have been less strong in the absence of psychological devices, making us people relate to the characters on the screen.

Firstly, it is realisation of inevitability, doom. When presented with glooming facts, people do not experience physical pain, but much more powerful combination of emotional discomfort and fear. Consider the following scenes.

• Coop is informed that the Earth has no future.
• Murph realises her dad is not coming back.
• Having been crashed by a tide, the crew understands how many real years have lapsed since their arrival to Miller’s planet.
• Seeing the explosion of Endurance. There is no way back home.

These moments serve as a driver of difficult decisions the characters have to make, allowing them to go through adversities and stay alive.

While the fatalism caused by an unexpected event invokes rather a sudden twinge of fear, loss of a reference point sustains a dull, long-lasting discomfort. It is said a human is in its comfort zone when he is at home with this his family or standing on the ground as opposed to being in a skydive. If taken out of the comfort zone, it is natural to experience anxiety. What if exclusion is million times exaggerated?

• Coop catching last glimpses of the Earth, while his ship is rapidly distancing from it.
• Romilly fathoms millions of miles of nothingness between him and the Earth.
• Mann put himself to hibernation, having not set the wake up time.
• Coop is about to enter Gargantua, barely realising what is waiting for him there.

I can confidently leave the ‘horror’ label on the adventure, drama, mystery, sci-fi film — Interstellar.