DISSECTING HORROR BIT BY BIT
While the roots of many of the fearful creatures Sady Doyle describes in her book are ancient, the stories of murder by exorcism, etc. are often very recent. It was with this last point in mind that I revisited one of my favorite films, David Cronenberg’s 1977 film Rabid.
The Invitation is nearly perfect to me, but it has always left me craving more in terms of its treatment of the five fascinating women it gives us.
DIS/MEMBER PRESENTS: HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) JOIN DIS/MEMBER’S JUSTIN PARTRIDGE & INSHA FITZPATRICK AS THEY HOST A NEW WATCH PARTY ON TWITCH.
VFW is a neon-drenched trippy thrill ride that you won’t get out of your head. It’s part zombie, full-blown 80s action horror, and a whole lot of fucking fun.
What’s grotesque on the inside usually comes out (or off) in a Twisted Twins flick such as Rabid.. That’s because superficial standards of feminine beauty, threats of sexual violence, and other exterior demands of a patriarchal system distort women’s interior lives. Men make women ugly on the inside. And ugliness will come out, often angrily. The slit, pierced, amputated, and mangled are thus the realest things about these movies. They provide tangible, gory evidence of women’s rage.
Michael Walls-Kelly highlights a couple from each entry that shows how Scream treats women as more than just screeching victims.
When thinking about women in horror, the focus is on final girls or female victims. What about the iconic female monsters and what they say about the genre?
Ginger Snaps turns twenty this year. Let’s celebrate the cult favorite that broke all the male-centered rules of 80s and 90s werewolf movies.
Cheng Lai Sheung (played by Josie Ho) evolves from dutiful daughter to mass murderer in Ho-Cheung Pang’s film Dream Home (2010).
Attracted by the welcoming Filipino government, Americans made movies there that they couldn’t make at home. The archipelago became a fertile environment for filmmakers to to let their imaginations run wild!