Misfit Sisters Preface and Introduction

In this post I’ll ease, you all in gently to Sue Short and her genius with a look at the books preface and introduction.

I don’t have much of an introduction with this one because she is spitting pure fact.

Preface notes:

The suggestion that horror revises familiar templates is remarkable in the fact that most ghost films, tropes, and slashers follow the same formula that we are trying to break with this ‘elevated’ horror. Subversion of the tropes whilst staying true to the genre is hard and critics are now calling these films ‘post horror’ to try and remove them from the reputation the genre has.

Female protagonists need to prove themselves in horror; this includes the risks they take, the roles they play, and changing gender roles and expectations. Fairy tales of often associated female initiation with dangers that take explicitly female form, such as we could stepmother's, cannibalistic witches, and vengeful fairies, all of whom must be avoided and overcome.

Arthur Rackham

In some of the earlier known versions of Red Riding Hood the protagonist may fail to mind her mother when she ventures out into the forest, yet she also escapes a Wolf single handidly by using her wits and learns a valuable lesson in survival. As Christina Bacchilega says, ‘straying from the path is necessary to acquire knowledge.’

Catherine Orenstein reminds us Red Riding Hood has empowered sisters found all over the globe which ought to make us question our so called timeless and universal stories about women, and our very notion of a heroine.

The preface basically calls out modern adaptations of red riding hood whilst outlining how the original was made to teach and empower. By understanding that Red Riding Hood needs to lose her mother to learn is much like what we find in morals of bastardised versions of these tales.

Introduction to understanding what rites of passage are and how to recognise them:

In horror films puberty is often shown to be a curse woman are not able to survive (Carrie, Ginger Snaps)

Ginger Snaps © Motion International

A lot of contemporary media mainstream culture has tended to focus on male rights and initiations at the exclusion of women, this is where contemporary horror really stands out. I believe that contemporary horror often focuses on women and their own rights and initiation but there is a certain finesse to it that is not always met.

Within mythic charms female rites of passage of traditionally marked by losing one’s virginity, getting betrothed, or giving birth, yet horror has shown the numerous parallel surrounding the events.

Slasher films often punish those who lose their virginity during the film, reproduction in horror is interesting as there’s been a rise in possessed children and films like Rosemary’s Baby, and even the first season of American Horror Story. Single mothers and the condemnation of marriage are also highly popular (The Babadook).

Robin Wood suggested that horror provides a cultural space for the return of the repressed comment reflecting a similar preoccupation with testing boundaries. By forcing female characters to take action; creating specific threats and equipping them with the capacity and assertiveness to do so, these tests can similarly be seen to speak of the unspeakable, often challenging particular conventions surrounding female expectations.