Projecting Paranoia: Conspiratorial Visions in American Film

A lit cigarette glows in the dark. A faceless voice describes sinister forces that are hard at work behind the scenes-a hidden conspiracy that controls our lives and perhaps even our thoughts. Then, like a ghost in the night, the voice is gone, leaving a residue of unease and a whisper of paranoia.

As emblematic as “Deep Throat” in All the President’s Men or the “Cigarette Smoking Man” in the wildly popular X-Files, that ghostly presence stands in for numerous other “voices” in a wide range ...