Serafima Serafimova
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, is often wrapped in misconceptions when depicted on our screens. It’s portrayed as charmingly quirky and riddled with misguided clichés that it only affects eccentrics, turning them into germaphobes who go around repeatedly turning lights on and off. Very few films and TV series illustrate what’s really at the core of OCD – unwanted, intrusive and often debilitating thoughts that can get fixated on pretty much any topic at all. Coincidentally, the only two compelling portrayals of lead characters living with the mental disorder that I can think of, both happen to be comedies centred around sex and intimacy – one being the six-part Channel 4 series Pure and the other Christopher Macken’s short film For the Safety of Theo.
To be upfront, For the Safety of Theo doesn’t exactly steer clear of the obsessive tidiness and cleanliness associated with OCD; in fact these traits are featured prominently throughout the film. However, the titular character isn’t just another thinly-sketched ‘clean-freak’ that we are invited to laugh at. Theo (brilliantly played by Darragh O’Toole) is extraordinarily ordinary and his anxieties following a one-night-stand will be shared by many. And while For the Safety of Theo is painfully funny, it carves its laughs out of darkness, and anyone who has at some point lost control of their thoughts and has felt the fear and loneliness that came from the experience, will be able to relate.
Darragh O’Toole as the titular Theo
We meet Theo in the bathroom, examining his teeth and gums. He has OCD. He likes to keep his condoms neatly stacked in the bedside table drawer. He feels a mild case of dread every time his mum calls. Theo also has a date which concludes with a casual hook-up. What follows is a slow but steady spiral down a dark mental hole as his fears of contracting an STI take over his entire existence. Macken, who wrote, directed and edited the film accurately describes it as an “anxiety ride of fast-paced and repetitive editing, paired with loud and disjointed music, set to a sterile backdrop being viciously overrun by grimy visuals and a grotesque soundscape”.
“I made this film to start a dialogue and contribute to making these specific subjects around OCD less taboo”
When we asked the director, who was diagnosed with OCD in his mid twenties, about what he set out to achieve with his short, he shared that he wanted to explore how the psychological disorder affected people’s sex life and relationships. “I’ve always found it constantly disappointing how Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is portrayed in film and TV. OCD has almost become a cheap, offensive punch-line. Humor is very healing — and compulsions can totally look absurd or silly to the outside viewer — but if we only have that, it creates a certain perception that OCD is a joke that we can simply brush off or laugh at. I made this film to start a dialogue and contribute to making these specific subjects around OCD less taboo, because it’s way more common than we think.”
For the Safety of Theo embraces these absurd and silly moments to a brilliantly funny effect. But it’s the situations the lead character puts himself into that get the biggest laughs, not Theo himself. He is not an oddball eccentric like Melvin Udall, played by Jack Nickolson in As Good As It Gets, or Nicolas Cage as Roy in Matchstick Men. Cleverly cast, we instantly connect and understand Theo, because despite his compulsions he is perfectly, unashamedly average. And that in itself feels new and brave. It also adds a much-needed layer of depth and complexity to our understanding of mental health. The fact that Macken has achieved this whilst also making us laugh is nothing short of brilliant.