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.
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.
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.