Misfit Sisters: Screen Horror as Female Rites of Passage

208 Pages·2007·1.091 MB·English

by  Sue Short (auth.)

Misfit Sisters
AlsobySueShort
CYBORGCINEMAANDCONTEMPORARYSUBJECTIVITY
Misfit Sisters
Screen Horror as Female Rites of Passage
Sue Short
©SueShort2007
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-0-230-00020-9
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Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-349-27952-4(cloth)
1. Horrorfilms“Historyandcriticism. 2. Womeninmotionpictures.
I. Title.
PN1995.9.H6S532007
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
For Carrie and Nancy, Ginger and Brigitte, Faith and Dahlia,
and all my misfit sisters out there.
Thedaughteristoobold
tobeanythingbut
acuckoointhenest.
Goodgirlssithome
andsewinthedark.
Theydon’tgoseekingfire
inthewitch’swoods.
–‘BoneMother’,
HollyBlack
Contents
Preface viii
Introduction 1
1 Telling Tales: Fairy Tales and Female Rites of Passage
Narratives 22
2 SexandtheFinalGirl:SurvivingtheSlasher 45
3 MaternalMonstersandMotherlyMentors:FailedInitiations
inCarrieandCarrieII 68
4 MisfitSisters:FemaleKinshipandRivalryinTheCraftand
GingerSnaps 88
5 FightingDemons:Buffy,Faith,Willow,andtheForcesof
GoodandEvil 111
6 Demeter’s Daughters: Wronged Girls and the Mother
Avenger 132
Conclusion 153
Notes 173
Bibliography 187
Filmography 191
Index 193
vii
Preface
Thewolf,Iknew,wouldleadmedeepintothewoods,
awayfromhome,toadarktangledthornyplace
litbytheeyesofowls.
–‘LittleRed-Cap’,CarolAnnDuffy
Toargue,asthisbookdoes,thathorrorsharesmanyconcernswithfairy
talesisnotasstrangeasuggestionassomemightthink,foralthoughwe
tend to associate them with cosy bedtime stories, fairy tales frequently
contain the stuff of nightmares. Indeed, once upon a time, they often
started out as scare stories that were intended to chill and thrill their
audiences by inviting them to empathise with various imperilled prot-
agonists. While the fear factor often became diluted as stories were
‘gentrified’ it can still be seen amid the tales we know today, and
many tropes have since found new expression within horror cinema:
includingthefearofbeingabandonedandmadevulnerable,threatened
byinhumanmonsters,orotherwiseplacedinmortaldangerinaworld
that is somehow askew. Fairy tale resonances are to be found in a
number of horror films, despite contemporary surburban settings like
ElmStreetandWoodsboro,andsomenarrativeshaveevenledusback
intothewoodsagain.TheBlairWitchProject(1999)placesitsthreeleads
in ‘Hansel and Gretel’ territory of being lost in strange woods, at the
mercyofanevilwitchtheyhaverashlyconsignedtomyth.Conversely,
The Village (2004) dresses up its version of ‘Red Riding Hood’ in a
yellowcloak,givesheraromanticmissiontosaveherlove,ratherthan
familialduty,andrevealsthemonstershebattlestobeman-made.These
examples indicate how horror has revised familiar templates, exposing
thepaththegenrehasfollowed,likestonesinmoonlight,andthereby
showingwherecertainmotifshavecomefrom.
Horror’s kinship with fairy tales is demonstrated through several
shared elements, including an emphasis on fear – used to add drama,
emotionally involve the audience, and express particular anxieties; a
mutual interest in the pleasure of fantasy – often involving the trans-
gressionofexistinglawsandboundaries;andwhatmanycriticsperceive
to be the social function of both forms: their invocation of particular
initiation rites – with plots highlighting the necessity of separation
viii
Preface ix
from friends and family (and comforting familiarity) prior to matura-
tion. It is the last factor this study examines more closely, asking how
female protagonists, in particular, are forced to prove themselves in
horror;evaluatingwhatriskstheytake,whatrolestheyplay,andwhat
such stories tell us about changing gender roles and expectations. As
we shall see, fear and fantasy also feature prominently in what is to
come,primarilyinthethreatsfacing(andsometimesemanatingfrom)
female protagonists, and in both the anxieties and the desires that are
voiced.
Althoughthecharactersassessedarenotallteenagerstheirstoriesare
equatedwithcoming-of-agetalesbecausetheyareallaskedtogrowup
over the course of their narrative journey, requiring a necessary loss
of innocence and the assumption of particular responsibilities. Trans-
formationisakeytheme,yetunlikethe‘Cinderella’fantasyoffinding
fulfilment through romance it is just such myths that horror elects
to question. Conventional models of mature womanhood are accord-
ingly tested in the many thwarted initiations presented, with protag-
onists who do not make the grade often proving to be the most inter-
esting. Female power may be decisively reigned in at times, in keeping
with so many tales we have heard over the years, yet ample room is
also given to question the intended function of such a denouement.
Fairy tales have often associated female initiation with dangers that
take explicitly female form, such as wicked stepmothers, cannibalistic
witches, and vengeful fairies, all of whom must be avoided and over-
come. Horror has similarly censured attendant flaws such as vanity,
jealousy,selfishness,andrage,asmanyofthetextsevaluatedhereattest,
yet it has also pushed at the boundaries surrounding female transgres-
sion, often championing protagonists who dare to disobey – an aspect
that was also to be found in the earliest forms of certain fairy tales. In
one of the earliest known versions of ‘Red Riding Hood’, for example,
the protagonist may fail to mind her mother when she ventures out
into the forest, yet she also escapes the wolf single-handedly, by using
her wits, and thus learns a valuable lesson in survival. As Cristina
Bacchilega puts it: ‘Straying from the path is necessary to acquire
knowledge.’1
Although they do not all manage to survive, it is through breaking
with convention, in various ways, and straying from the path usually
given to female characters that the protagonists assessed in this study
eachdistinguishthemselves.Somegainsupernaturalpowers,oftenwith
the onset of puberty, some are armed with no more than the quick-
minded cunning and bravery exhibited by Red Riding Hood’s oral