Episode 109: Grief and Guilt Can Take You on a Journey into Darkness — Herman (2025) with Dir. Andrew Vogel

About this episode

Alex and filmmaker Andrew Vogel discuss the psychological themes in the film Herman (2025).

Join Alex and filmmaker Andrew Vogel, director of the new psychological horror/thriller film, Herman (2025), as they discuss the themes and psychological concepts found within his directorial debut! The film follows a harrowing evening experienced by the titular character, Herman, played by Colin Ward. Herman is dealing with the grief and guilt losing his wife 40 years ago and it manifests as some form of darkness. The pair discuss these topics from a psychological perspective, including how religious psychology plays a role, as well as psychosis as meaning-making rather than a mental disorder. There's a lot up to audience interpretation and Alex has a field day thinking up various ideas to prod the filmmaker! Check out VP Independent's Instagram or email Andrew directly. You can find Herman (2025) now on Amazon — leave a review if you watch it! Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), or Threads/Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you! If you like this content, you might like my new Audible audiobook/course, A Psychologist Goes to the Movies, available now! It features six films that…

People in this episode

Host: Alex

Guest: Andrew Vogel

Topics covered

• grief
• guilt
• psychological horror
• psychosis
• religious psychology
• film analysis

Keywords

• Herman
• Andrew Vogel
• psychological horror
• grief
• guilt
• film analysis
• Colin Ward

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: VP Independent, cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com, Audible, Paypal, MERCH STORE

Books & works: Herman (2025)

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