In the beginning of Sherlock Holmes (2009), Lord Blackwood attempts to kill a young woman during some sort of dark ritual and is thwarted just in time by Holmes and Watson. Blackwood himself was not going to do it, instead he put her in some sort of "spell", causing the girl to attempt to stab herself.
Given that the "supernatural powers" of Lord Blackwood were revealed as nothing more than "conjuring tricks", why did the girl try to stab herself at the direction of Blackwood?
Answer
I never saw a definitive explanation, but there are three theories:
Hypnotism (a person with Blackwood's personality and charisma is likely to be a good hypnotist). This is somewhat confirmed by the script (after Holmes stops Blackwood):
The girl has snapped out of her trance, and is backing away from them as best she can
Somewhat related to the first possibility, please note that the cult members frequently allow the cult leader to exercise nearly total control, up to suicide (see Jim Jones for one of the more dramatic examples, that gave name to the "drinking cool-aid" expression).
Also, while extremely rare in actuality, sacrifice has happened on the more extreme end of BDSM circles and is an unexpectedly popular thing for many in BDSM as a fantasy.
The "victim" was an actress who was supposed to act like she was about to kill herself, considering that Blackwood pretty much arranged for his own arrest.
No comments:
Post a Comment