The Perversion
The ideal of motherhood is often posited as the pedestal upon which society is built. Mothers are supposed to be the ones who protect us, civilize us. Women are expected to flow gracefully into the role of motherhood with full acceptance and wisdom. Fear or resentment are taboos women are expected to repress and never discuss. In the field of psychology, the child’s complicated relationship with its mother is often seen as the primary foundation of mental wellness or illness.
The horror genre has many different takes on the dark, dangerous side of pregnancy and motherhood.
Pregnancy and Nurturing
Pregnancy and delivery can be the most dangerous times in a woman’s life. Even with advanced medicine, something can go wrong at anytime. Polansky’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968,) and Bustillo and Maury’s Inside (2007,) detail how pregnancy makes a woman vulnerable to the natural process happening to her and to the people around her, even the ones she trusts most. Zombie’s Lords of Salem (2012) and Aronofsky’s Mother! (2017) are more examples of women losing their identities, and more, to the designs of others.
Stephen King’s Carrie (1976) is one of the most well known films of how a mother’s psychosis helps to destroy her daughter. Margaret White’s (Piper Laurie) fear of the outside world and her daughter, Carrie’s (Sissy Spacek) supernatural ability, lead directly to Carrie unleashing the dark side of that ability onto others. Mother and daughter die together, unable to exist apart.
But a more interesting trend has been developing. We are seeing more films about mothers wrestling with the fear that their child is a monster, or that they are. They fear what they know they are capable of doing.
Fear of the Twisted Mother
Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014) was one of the first films that made me focus on this theme. Interestingly, it is the only film in this article written and directed by a woman. Throughout the film, the focus is on the imaginary Mister Babadook monster of the children’s book and young Samuel’s (Noah Wiseman) uncontrollable behavior and anxiety that seem to be leading his mother, Amelia (Essie Davis) towards a breakdown. As the movie progresses, we get a look into Amelia’s unresolved grief and anger as the potential boogeyman.
There are three recent films that take the theme of twisted motherhood to a deeper level. Eggers’ The Witch (2015,) and Feigelfield’s Hagazussa (2017) use similar themes, but have different outcomes. Both films deal with daughters trying to escape their mothers, while both struggle against a culture of oppression and suspicion that separates them from their communities, and pits them against each other. Rebellion is achieved through acceptance of their feminine nature and rejection of the mother.
Hereditary
Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) is the most complete study of the perversion of motherhood. We see Annie (Toni Collette,) as daughter and mother. As a daughter, her own mother’s death serves as a catalyst for her breakdown as she is confronted with the devastation of evil and insanity that has plagued her since childhood. She is trapped between seeing her mother as the manipulative monster she was, and the narrative of family mental illness she has used as protection.
As mother, she is tormented by the knowledge that she cannot protect her children from the long laid designs of her mother’s cult. Annie is of two minds, one of which feels driven to protect her children, even as she resents being forced into motherhood against her will as a fulfillment of her mother’s plans. She sees her family’s fate play out in front of her, and she knows she is ultimately unable to stop it.
Hereditary, is the ultimate take on the contradictory views we hold about women and mothers and our struggle to connect and liberate ourselves from them.
The Plot Sickens: Discover Jonny Numb’s take on Hereditary!
Crash Analysis Support Team
Kim McDonald
Kim McDonald rocks out on metal near Charlotte, North Carolina, and obsesses over “weirder” foreign horror films. You can find Kim’s movie reviews at loudgreenbird.com and follow her on Twitter @dixiefairy.
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