unnerve

Since President Trump took office in January, Head Start centers have been unnerved by an escalating series of threats, including, most recently, total annihilation.

Too often, the desire to unnerve audiences takes priority, resulting in the metaphor being muddled between jump scares and gore.

And there, like an old friend, is Cronenberg’s regular composer Howard Shore with a synth moan to keep the mood unnerving.

She’s unnerved by the news images of undocumented immigrants being loaded onto planes, shackled like violent criminals, and returned to their native countries.

I sat for a Bachardy portrait in 1983 — one of two he made that day is in the Huntington exhibition — and the experience was unnerving.