Why horror films love to depict the family home Reviews & Culture – Socialist Worker

A doll of the possessed Regan from the Exorcist (Picture: Garrett Ziegler)

Over the past decade, there has been a revival in the horror genre, with noticeably more diversity among directors. Many of these films ­consciously critique elements of the family and bring taboo subjects to light. What is it about this ­institution that inspires so many gruesome movies?

The family can be a haven or a hell—usually a bit of both. Hollywood likes to show us a haven, but the horror genre finds a rich source of material, too. On the surface, there is a rigid morality in horror films. Got a sexual history? Prepare to die violently.

Invite ­someone you are not biologically related to into your family home? Say your prayers. Whatever you do, don’t hire a nanny. This all ­suggests that the threat comes from outside. But often, there are hints that the source of evil is the family itself.

In Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, the Torrance family is an abusive hell long before they arrive at the haunted Overlook Hotel. In The Exorcist, 12-year-old Reagan is possessed by a demon, but early scenes reveal discontent between her and her mother. Reagan’s possession is a powerful ­metaphor for puberty and the encroaching expectations of femininity.

Bodily changes, bad skin, angry outbursts, strange fluid excretions…sound familiar? Once ­exorcised, Reagan is the ­paragon of girlhood—meek, polite and obedient. It is notable that following attacks on abortion rights in the United States three horror films about forced pregnancy will be released this year.

The films The First Omen and Immaculate feature women being drugged, impregnated and forced to carry the ­pregnancy to term. And Apartment 7A is a ­prequel to Rosemary’s Baby, in which a demonic cult impregnates a woman with Satan’s spawn. The Babadook is ­remarkable for ­allowing ambivalence about motherhood.

The institution of the family relies on the notion of privacy—what goes on behind closed doors is nobody else’s business. This can mask real horrors and it can lead to a lot of shame, especially for young people learning about their bodies and desires.

Horror as a genre has a particular ability to express such difficult and uncomfortable emotions. But it can go further, too.  In Jordan Peele’s 2017 film Get Out the white, ­upper-class family is the source of evil. They also ­represent the system, the ruling class in white ­supremacist United States.

So who or what is the ­monster? The neurotic mother or the violent father? Or can we look instead to the society in which these dynamics play out?

There are different ways of assigning monstrosity—the source of evil or the ­disrupter of systems. Karl Marx compared ­capital to the undead vampire and the insatiable ­werewolf, but he also wrote in the Communist Manifesto of a spectre haunting Europe—the spectre of communism, which the ruling class was organising to exorcise.

Horror films’ resurgence can provide a fantastic outlet for critiques of the system—and perhaps identify some of the spectres ­haunting ­capitalism in the 21st century.

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