‘Monsterhood’ and Women: The Conflation in Horror
- Muskaan Mir
- Apr 15, 2023
- 3 min read
Women have always played a prominent role in the sub-genres of horror, ranging from thrillers with mothers driven to madness (Rosemary’s Baby, Hereditary) to slashers employing the final girl trope (Alien, A Nightmare on Elm Street). However, they are often only praised for how convincing their performances as enraged and terrified victims are; the feminist messages they carry through their work behind and beyond the lens are often pushed aside and forgotten.
Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1979)
Every film has a story to tell, and many pioneers of horror fiction were women. Mary Shelley is credited with inventing modern horror with Frankenstein, while Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, The Birds, and Don’t Look Now were all adapted into films by Alfred Hitchcock, bringing more acclaim to his reputation than hers. In fact, the director was vitally inspired by Alice Balché who created some of the first horror films to ever exist; unfortunately, they are considered to be “lost films” that have faded into oblivion. When women did occupy leading roles in making horror films— both literally and figuratively— their significance often went unseen. In other movies, women are often meagre props to male leads, serving as helpless objects to be saved so that the men may become more heroic and admirable— see Kirsten Dunst in Spiderman or even Rani Mukherjee in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.
In horror, they are often at the forefront, subverting the villain/victim trope by often being both at the same time. Some critics argue that women are solely victims; the only reason they are given leading roles in the first place is because they are viewed as weak and fragile. They instill more fear in the audience than male victims would, and it also creates a clear, gendered contrast between the brutal and masculine torturing, punishing, or killing the delicate and feminine. It is argued that the recent wave of “elevated horror” with films like Get Out, Us, and Midsommar has only just begun to present meaningful stories with political and social commentary.
Let’s break away from the critical analyses and statistics for a moment. This would imply that earlier, horror was just a visually explicit genre of no intellectual value that only provided entertainment for those seeking a couple of hours of brainless fun. However, the horror genre has always strived for progressiveness by incorporating multifaceted women. In fact, in making them villains of such films, the genre accurately portrays what it’s like to be a woman in today’s world.
Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Consider Jennifer’s Body. Megan Fox’s infamous character has a bloodthirsty demon trapped within her, certainly making her ‘evil’ when she pursues a supposed killing rampage. But the reason she is possessed in the first place is because she was saved by it from sexual assault. Jennifer is looking to avenge herself, also what Carrie in the film of the same name sets out to do. Closer to home, Stree, Bulbbul, and Pari flipped the narrative of Indian female supernatural entities where their monsterhood stems from their desire to be respected with basic human decency — something many women are still deprived of in a patriarchal world.
As Kelly Gredner puts it: “[Feminist horror is] a place for women to scream their loudest into the void and finally be heard. In feminist horror, women find empowerment in being succubi, vampires, demons, witches, aliens, and more.” They can strike back at their oppressors without being restrained by notions of morality that women ‘ought’ to possess. Horror is feminist because it allows women to live freely as themselves.
Muskaan Mir
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