In Jewish folklore the dybbuk is an alien personality, which can possess a living person and result in this person’s mental illness. Dybbuk is an abbreviation of dibbuk me-ru’ah ra’ah, which means a “cleavage of an evil spirit.” Therefore, the name itself is about the process of attachment of a spirit to a body. Since Ansky’s play The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds popularized this cleaving spirit, directors have co-opted the concept, representing the dybbuk in multiple popular horror films.
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