Psychics

What's the downside of having psychic powers? The idea of being able to read minds or manipulate objects without moving a muscle is an attractive fantasy. But what if those powers showed you things you wished you hadn't seen? What if people wanted to exploit your gift for their own sinister ends? Worse than that: what if someone with psychic abilities turned their powers against you?

Movies about psychics play on the ego of our species - humans rose to the top thanks to their large, multilayered brains - but they also exploit our insecurities. We understand little about cognition and the nature of free will, and we know we're just a brain tumor away from radical personality shifts and psychotic behavior. The fear of psychic powers gone wrong is the fear of our own turbulent minds.

This episode features a wide range of psychic films made by superstar creators, including David Cronenberg's Scanners and The Dead Zone, Mike Flanagan's thrilling adaptation of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, Brian DePalma's The Fury, Sam Raimi's The Gift, Peter Jackson's The Frighteners and Tim Burton's horror/comedy masterpiece Beetlejuice.