Return of the Repressed

The theory of the return of the repressed is often used to explain horror film narratives, Sigmund Freud created this theory which is developed on the idea that repressed emotions emerge from our subconscious through ways which can be ranged from unnoticeable to extreme. In the case of horror film villains, this could show that a villain which was previously harmed perhaps mentally through a past experience for example watching their parents die when they were young could have previous feeling which would cause them to kill someone, this particularly happens to someone significant who plays a key role in the narrative.

The Shining

The similarity of the character roles in The Shining and Freud's theory of the return of the repressed fits in very well, there are a few different ways in which you could link his theory to this narrative.

1. You could say that the return of past memories from the hotel and what significantly has happened is returning through visions of gruesome murder victims and hallucinations of 1930's characters including the old janitor who murdered his own family in the hotel.
2. Another link could be that Jack's small violent history which he shares with Lloyd, the imaginary barman, is adding towards his crazed behaviour, you could say that the bottled up hatred for his family is being expressed due to isolation and cabin fever 

Halloween

The villain in Halloween, Mike Myers, is a very fitting example for this theory which fits in well with the horror genre. He killed his sister when he was young which was a very traumatic event, this was followed by him getting sent to a mental asylum and 15 years of silence. This meant that 15 years of bottled up and repressed emotions suddenly burst which caused him to break out of the asylum and go to murder all the innocent people in the town where this traumatic event unfolded 15 years ago. This character is probably one of the best examples of villain where the return of repressed memories from the past causes someone to go crazy and do something awful, in this case killing people.

In conclusion I think that this theory plays a huge role in our understanding of antagonistic characters in horror narratives and why they change into the monsters and commit these horrific acts of murder.