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Ryan Murphy's latest Netflix series explores the origin story of Nurse Mildred Ratched, the iconic antagonist of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The series, simply called Ratched, takes place in 1947 in Northern California, and follows Ratched (played by longtime Murphy collaborator Sarah Paulson) as she cons her way into a job as a nurse at the Lucia State Hospital. While she works with patients and navigates her own shadowy, personal schemes, she proves herself to be a toxic presence that should be familiar to both readers of Kesey's novel and fans of the book's 1975 Oscar-winning film adaptation.
The show, while exceedingly graphic and gruesome, can be incredibly pretty to look at, and throughout its eight-episode first season, viewers might notice a few visual nods to well-known films, not just director Miloš Forman's version of Cuckoo's Nest. While watching, keep an eye (and occasionally an ear) out for parts of Ratched that recall The Shining, Pyscho and The Wizard of Oz.
The first time the audience meets Ratched, she's wearing a scarlet "R" on her jacket, which reminded us of the "A" that Hester Prynne has to wear in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Prynne is an outcast throughout Hawthorne's novel—and in the 1995 big-screen telling starring Demi Moore—for having a child out of wedlock while her husband was believed dead, and for refusing to identify the father.
Regardless of whether the "R" is indeed a reference to The Scarlet Letter, Ratched would likely identify with Prynne for feeling like an outcast. We learn early on in the series that as a child, Ratched bounced between foster homes, each more abusive than the next. It's also important to note that Ratched herself was born out of wedlock, just like Prynne's daughter, Pearl. Knowing that she came from "sin" (at least, that's how she sees it) is something she's carried with her throughout her life. We won't get too far into details, but suffice to say that a big part of the show's main plot hinges on the idea of reuniting with family.
Ratched's score, meanwhile, contains very recognizable bits from classic horror films. Bernard Herrmann's themes from Psycho and Cape Fear play at different points, giving the show a menacing vibe. When those cascading strings from Cape Fear hit, it's enough to chill the blood. They lend the show a theatrical sense of grandeur; it's a shortcut, but still effective.
Besides, the similarities to those films go beyond the music. In Psycho, much of the film takes places at the Bates Motel; throughout Ratched, the titular character stays at a motel, one that's run by a nosy proprietor (Louise, played by Amanda Plummer) who's preoccupied with the sexual lives of her guests. Ratched's motel owner doesn't appear to have the split personality issues or homicidal tendencies of Psycho's Norman Bates, but there are some similarities there.
As for Cape Fear, in the 1962 original, ex-convict Max Cady plays a cat-and-mouse game with attorney Sam Bowden. Cady's seeking revenge on Bowden for testifying against him in a rape trial. The chase Cady's on in pursuit of Bowden is similar to one in Ratched: Hired hitman Charles Wainwright (Corey Stoll) is on assignment to decapitate the seemingly negligent Dr. Hanover (Jon Jon Briones).
In the show's third episode, we see that Wainwright has been hired by wealthy heiress Lenore Osgood (Sharon Stone). Her son was Dr. Hanover's patient until a grisly injury occurred that resulted in her son having both his legs and both his arms amputated.
There are also more pointed visual nods that enhance Ratched's central character.
In a couple of scenes, starting in the first episode, Nurse Ratched is lit by eerie green lighting while she strides down the hallways of Lucia State Hospital. This happens when she wanders around the hospital before her initial job interview, and again after she's added to the roster of nurses. This spooky glow seems to symbolize her sinister intentions, which aren't to simply earn a job at the hospital. She's there for a specific reason, which she doesn't make clear to any of her coworkers.
The color effect makes Nurse Ratched look like another infamous movie villain: The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West. The green-skinned witch is one of the top five villains on the American Film Institute's list of "100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains," along with Nurse Ratched. The latter clocks in at number 5, behind Dr. Hannibal Lecter of The Silence of the Lambs, Norman Bates of Psycho, Star Wars' Darth Vader and the Wicked Witch, in that order. That's some crew.
Another recurring visual motif is the long hallway shots throughout the Lucia State Hospital, which recall Stanley Kubrick's horror classic The Shining. The hallways' Art Deco design feels a bit too ornate for a hospital, with all the beautiful tiles and lighting fixtures, but the sequences set in the hallways capture the same unsettling vibe of little Danny Torrance biking through the halls of the Overlook Hotel. The way the camera's perspective narrows when some characters strut through the hospital create an air of suspense because it feels like the hallways could go on forever. And the space is also lined with a ton of doors, and there's no way to know who's behind them, or what's going on in secret.
This next connection might be reaching a bit, but the nurses' stylized uniforms bear a similarity to the outfits worn by the creepy twin girls in The Shining, with their blue tones and cinched waist.
Of course, there's no denying that the series packs in some references to the aforementioned film adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. We prefer to highlight one of the more subtle, blink-and-you-might-miss-it nods. In the fifth episode, Ratched is promoted to head nurse over the mercurial Nurse Betsy Bucket, portrayed by the no-nonsense Judy Davis. Our lead character's given a set of keys to the hospital and places the key ring around her arm, just like actress Louise Fletcher does in Cuckoo's Nest, in her Oscar-winning portrayal of Nurse Ratched.
In the film, the keys remind the other characters that Ratched has all the control. Once she's promoted in the new TV series, she's given that privilege. And with Nurse Ratched in charge, there's no telling what will be prescribed next..
The first season of Ratched is now available to stream on Netflix.
