Chung Harry Chung Professor Jeff Heinzl Eng Scifilm Sept. 21 2016 In Sigmund Freud’s essay “The Uncanny”, he defined the term uncanny as the “class of the terrifying which leads us back to something long known to us, once very familiar ” (Freud). What this means is that you will find yourself returning to the exact same spot you’ve experience before, but doesn’t have an exact certainty as to when you’ve experienced it before. This unreal feeling makes you feel like you are being manipulated by outside force, in which creates the uncanny feeling mentioned by Freud. However, the connection of uncanniness being conveyed through words wasn’t as realistic as presented in pictures. Therefore, I’ve decided to watch The film Ex Machina, which perfectly depicted the uncanny effect mentioned by Freud, in which the film toys with the audiences’ capability of distinguishing reality from imagination; in other words, toys with the audiences’ capability of distinguishing automaton from human beings. The movie, Ex Machina, portrayed an ingenious creator, who successfully invented human droid, Ava, which possessed artificial intelligence and gender (female). However, to prove the human droid to have consciousness he specifically picked one of his employees under his company, who possessed moral compass and was in a single status: Caleb Smith (male). As audiences, we were not given this information in the beginning, this information was revealed in the final scenes. Therefore, we as audiences experienced the same experiences Caleb Smith have been through. In other words, the “Turing test” was not only proctored by Caleb, but also by the audiences. During the Turing tests, Caleb encountered another character Kyko, she was one of the factors that caused the uncanny effect. Unlike Ava, we were not provided any background information about character, Kyko, except for the fact that she served as an assistant for Nathan and can only function several domestic needs: cooking, serving, cleaning, etc… Her existence within the facility not only made us feel uncomfortable due to the fact that she had no personal right and was treated inhumanely, but also due to the fact that she wasn’t able to understand language. Throughout the film, she seemed quite familiar to us as to the fact that she had a human appearance, but up to the point where a medium close up shot was taken when she peeled of her skin: revealing the robotic components under her. This revelation provides us with a classical Freud’s example of something uncanny: when something familiar (human being) turns out to become something unfamiliar (automaton) (Frued). Although I had an expectation that Kyoko might have been an automaton, witnessing her peeling her skin off still surprised me. The flashback shots of Kyoko looking straight into the camera was the most uncanny part of her revelation. It was close-up shot of Kyoko’s face with a section of her skin, the skin around the nose and eyes, being peeled off. Th ...

1. Chung
Harry Chung
Professor Jeff Heinzl
Eng Scifilm
Sept. 21 2016
In Sigmund Freud’s essay “The Uncanny”, he defined the term
uncanny as the “class of the terrifying which leads us back to
something long known to us, once very familiar ” (Freud). What
this means is that you will find yourself returning to the exact
same spot you’ve experience before, but doesn’t have an exact
certainty as to when you’ve experienced it before. This unreal
feeling makes you feel like you are being manipulated by
outside force, in which creates the uncanny feeling mentioned
by Freud. However, the connection of uncanniness being
conveyed through words wasn’t as realistic as presented in
pictures. Therefore, I’ve decided to watch The film Ex Machina,
which perfectly depicted the uncanny effect mentioned by
Freud, in which the film toys with the audiences’ capability of
distinguishing reality from imagination; in other words, toys
with the audiences’ capability of distinguishing automaton from
human beings.
The movie, Ex Machina, portrayed an ingenious creator, who
successfully invented human droid, Ava, which possessed
artificial intelligence and gender (female). However, to prove
the human droid to have consciousness he specifically picked
one of his employees under his company, who possessed moral
compass and was in a single status: Caleb Smith (male). As
audiences, we were not given this information in the beginning,
this information was revealed in the final scenes. Therefore, we
as audiences experienced the same experiences Caleb Smith
have been through. In other words, the “Turing test” was not
only proctored by Caleb, but also by the audiences.
During the Turing tests, Caleb encountered another character

2. Kyko, she was one of the factors that caused the uncanny effect.
Unlike Ava, we were not provided any background information
about character, Kyko, except for the fact that she served as an
assistant for Nathan and can only function several domestic
needs: cooking, serving, cleaning, etc… Her existence within
the facility not only made us feel uncomfortable due to the fact
that she had no personal right and was treated inhumanely, but
also due to the fact that she wasn’t able to understand language.
Throughout the film, she seemed quite familiar to us as to the
fact that she had a human appearance, but up to the point where
a medium close up shot was taken when she peeled of her skin:
revealing the robotic components under her. This revelation
provides us with a classical Freud’s example of something
uncanny: when something familiar (human being) turns out to
become something unfamiliar (automaton) (Frued). Although I
had an expectation that Kyoko might have been an automaton,
witnessing her peeling her skin off still surprised me. The
flashback shots of Kyoko looking straight into the camera was
the most uncanny part of her revelation. It was close-up shot of
Kyoko’s face with a section of her skin, the skin around the
nose and eyes, being peeled off. The background of the shot was
dimly lit by the natural indoor light, in order to accentuate
Kyoko’s true identity. With the additional effect of dolly shot
closing up to Kyoko’s face and the non-diegetic sound, I as an
audience was able to feel Caleb’s fear. It not only made me
understand what it felt like to be looked straight into the eyes,
but also made me understand what Freud meant by witnessing
“dismembered limbs, a severe head, a hand cut off at the wrist,
feet which dance by themselves” (Freud). Both of these
incidents created a rather unfamiliar feeling for Caleb and the
audiences because we are not used to seeing a familiar object
(skin) to be separated from its original-being (Face).
The scene of Kyoko made us wonder who exactly is
human. Is Caleb human? This exact question doesn’t only go
through our mind, but also through Caleb’s mind as he took
action to figure out his true identify. Therefore, he took action

3. in the following shots as he approached to the bathroom. The
bathroom was brightly lit by natural indoor light, and it was cut
at the point he entered the bathroom. The following shots
revealed him struggling to prove himself to be human. The
feeling of uncanniness began to rise as he cuts his skin open,
resulting with the blood pouring out his hand. With the
continuous non-diegetic sound playing in the background, we
definitely began to share the character’s emotion within the
movie. In fact, since the shot was created to make a “pretense to
realism”, the feeling of uncanniness reaches its climax as he
still persisted to open the wound to see if there were any robotic
components (Freud). In addition, uncanniness was also
presented by his choice of clothing, the shot showed him
wearing a blue and white striped pajama which kind of
foreshadowed his state within the film. The pajama resembled
the kind of pajama worn by the people within concentration
camps. In other words, it reminded me of something familiar in
a rather strange perspective.
Strange as it is, Ava presented with the most human-like
responses yet “she’s” made of robotic components. Unlike the
previous Androids who ended up getting dismembered, “she”
hid what she wanted the most, freedom, by toying with Caleb’s
human response. In other words, we’ve had our mind toyed by
an artificial intelligence which possess inner subjectivity: when
the personal world is separate from one’s external actions. Inner
subjectivity is the ability to create an idea of double that think
or acts differently from one’s external actions. What this means
is that Ava has two kind of appearances: one wishing to get out
of the facility (Reality), another one showing her love for Caleb
(imagination). She definitely passed the test of having
conscious, which should create an uncanny effect. However,
Caleb’s love for her has blinded our ability to judge how
uncanny it is for an artificial intelligence to have conscious.
The scene of Ava: Session 2 showed Ava’s ability to question
Caleb and the scene showed a shot where a visual split between
Ava and her reflection. The shot was taken 20:00 into the movie

4. as her reflection begin to show up on the surface of the glass.
The repetitive cuts of the scene, showing a medium-close up
shot of caleb and close-up shot of Ava, made a significant
foreshadow for the audiences. It was as if there were two
questioners in the shot: Ava and her reflection. It was this
reflection that made us wonder what her true intention was.
Although we (the audience) were blinded by Caleb’s intimacy
towards Ava, the film did not allow us to dwell within the fairy
tale-like world it drew us back to reality as Ava left the facility
with Caleb behind. This almost unreal ending created the
cruelest reality for its audience: the uncanny effect.
Destabilize:
Technically I know that Kyoko is a robot because in the scene
where they were dancing, Nathan was able to perform exactly
what Kyoko was dancing. It is also because of Nathan’s coding
background that made me wonder the existence of Kyoko being
programmed by Nathan. Due to this doubt that I have, the
revelation seemed rather explainable and normal. On the other
hand, if I still consist of the infantile wish for all humans to be
clones/robots than it’d wouldn’t catch me off guard to see
Kyoko’s identity transferring from a human to a robot. This
means that “the source of the feeling of an uncanny thing would
not, therefore, be an infantile fear in this case, but rather an
infantile wish or even only an infantile belief”(Freud). This
then destabilize my theory that Kyoko was one of the factors
that create the almost uncanny feeling for us.
On the other hand, if we positioned ourselves to not have
any attachment with the movie than we would not have the
emotions Caleb possess. In other words, we won’t have the
uncanny feeling when caleb sliced his wrist open because we
know it is unreal: a fake opened wound. For the people who
stands their ground and will not easily let their belief getting
carried away by the special effect of the film, will not be able to
feel how uncanny (weird) it is to slice one’s arm open and
inspect it. Everything that seemed uncanny to a normal
audience, will reflect as something that should happen. In other

5. words, if you have watched a lot of movies, you’d not be
surprised to see a turn of an event such as Ava revealing her
true intention. Thus, we can say that the uncanny effect doesn’t
reflect to everyone.
In addition, I find it rather uncanny for Freud to restrict
our ability to define the feeling of uncanny. Isn’t it rather odd
that we have to follow Freud’s definition of uncanny, in order
to feel uncanny. It was as if I have to specifically experience
what Freud experienced, in order to classify what I experienced
as uncanny. From my point of view, I believe the uncanny effect
is a feeling that cannot be phrased into words, for instance, in
the end of the film as Ava walked out of the facility I felt the
feeling of strange relief. I think this is caused by the buildup of
what I wish Ava to become; therefore, in the end when she went
off onto a different route I felt uncanniness. I’m not saying
Freud is wrong, but we should not surrender our feelings to
Freud’s words.
Works cited
Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." 1919. Trans. Alix
Strachey. MIT Web. MIT, 24 Oct. 2004. Web. 20 Aug. 2012.
Garland, Alex, dir. Ex Machina. 2015. Lionsgate, 2015. DVD.
(DVD-9414)
1. Make sure that the destabilizing points in your conclusion are
clear and connected to the essay you’ve written.
In future essays focus on one key point of destabilization
instead of several. Then, make sure this point in explained
clearly and thoroughly. I find your point about Kyoko very
confusing. What does she have to do with infantile wishes?

6. Also, what’s the difference between an infantile wish/belief and
an infantile fear? And does a coordinated dance automatically
mean that one or both characters involved are robots? Then,
your point about certain viewers distancing themselves from the
film or knowing it’s not real doesn’t match up with Freud’s
essay about the uncanny, where he specifically engages with
fictional—that is to say, unreal—texts. He argues that our
knowledge that fictional texts are not real does not get in the
way of their uncanny effect. Be aware of these sorts of
implications in all secondary materials you cite.
2. Contextualize any quotes you include in an essay.
I’ve already pointed out the problem with the Freud quote in
your conclusion (because of the confusion it causes), but the
“pretense to realism” and “dismembered limb” passages are
equally problematic, because you don’t explain where they
appear in Freud’s essay or how you’re interpreting them in the
context of his essay. Explain each quote you include, tying each
quote back to the overarching ideas present in Freud’s essay.
· Conclusion that destabilizes the rest of the essay
· 28 of 40 points
· Clear thesis
· 7 of 10 points
· Examples that clearly relate back to thesis
· 10 of 10 points
· Proper incorporation of description of at least two scenes from
Ex Machina, incorporating language from the “Cinematic
Techniques” worksheet and explaining how these cinematic
techniques relate to your argument
· 10 of 10 points
· Proper incorporation of at least two direct quotes from “The
Uncanny” (quotes fully contextualized and explained)
· 6 of 10 points
· Whole essay at least 1500 words in length
· 5 of 5 points
· Works Cited
· 5 of 5 points

7. · Proper In-Text Citations
· 3 of 5 points (no page numbers)
· Conclusion at least 400 words in length
· 5 of 5 points
Grade: 79
Just an example as to what I am thinking
Movies, literatures, articles, magazines, and newspapers
can all be interpreted ranging from the literary devices to the
formation of the character. Each choice or selection of words
are under the scrutinize of critics; therefore, each critic has
their own unique definition or analyzation to each literary
artwork: they choose what they want and filter out the
unnecessary contents. In other words, as long as subjectivity
exists, there can be multiple analytical commentaries. There can
also be multiple identities for our main character, Ava, within
the movie, Ex Machina. As mentioned, subjectivity leads to
multiplicity; therefore, what are the multiple identities Ava
present as an artificial intelligence. More importantly, what
does artificial intelligence suggest about woman within the
movie?
The movie, Ex Machina , portrayed an ingenious creator,
who successfully invented human droid, Ava, which possessed
artificial intelligence and gender (Female). The