There are myriad subgenres of horror, and in recent years, we have seen a resurgence in films pertaining to the Occult. Maternal horrors and affiliations between the feminine and the monstrous are familiar tales, and have been galvanized by a combination of slow-burn horror structure and themes of maternal grief, familial belief systems, and religion. This brand of horror includes films like The Babadook (2014), The Witch (2016), El Orfanato (2007), Hereditary (2018), and more.
Using The Witch (2016) and Hereditary (2018) as my central texts, I will explore how mother-child relationships are put in conversation with Christianity, the Occult, and psychoanalysis. While I will make use of the elaborate historiography of feminist psychoanalytic readings of horror films, I will depart from those readings by arguing that Puritanical/Christian anxieties about sexuality and the nuclear family are articulated through the realization of demonological beings on screen.
The ultimate goal of this presentation is to explore the concepts of biological determinism, essentialist feminism, the disruption of the Christian/nuclear family, and sexual competition with one’s parents. These issues are articulated through narratives involving the Occult, grief, and unambiguous endings. The Witch and Hereditary are indicative of a new slew of slow horror films dealing with the Occult in ways that force us to confront our Puritanical conceptions of family and sexuality. The presentation will culminate in how these two films are distinct from other slow-burn Occult films, and how they are representative of the overarching concerns of the subgenre.
About the presenterKyna Alene McClenaghan
I am a current graduate student of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University, researching the cultural function of tech-noir films and conducting inquiries into the historical and cultural roots of the hybrid genre. My interests are highly interdisciplinary, ranging from feminism, philosophy, and religion to technology and science studies. Other research interests include folk horror, transnational noir, film philosophy, and feminist filmmakers of the American women’s liberation movement.