Female Characters in Psychological Horror
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SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-přírodověděcká fakulta v Opavě Veronika Hušková obor: Angličtina Female Characters in Psychological Horror Diplomová práce Vedoucí diplomové práce: Opava 2020 PhDr. Diana Adamová, Ph.D. Abstract This thesis deals with female characters in selected horror novels and their film adaptations from 1970 to 2019. Each chapter recounts the development of the horror genre in each decade and then highlights the selected novels in the decade’s context. The analytical part introduces the selected texts’ authors briefly and proceeds to analyze the female characters and their roles in the text, and how the filmmakers managed to translate the essence of these characters onto the big screen. The aim of this thesis is to provide a concise overview of the genre, categorize each female character and determine if and how did the portrayal of female characters change with time. Key words: horror, modern cinematography, American literature, British literature, Stephen King, Thomas Harris, Clive Barker, Jeff VanderMeer, female characters, Carrie, The Shining, Hellraiser, Misery, Silence of the Lambs, The Mist, It, Annihilation Abstrakt Tato práce se zabývá ženskými postavami ve vybraných hororových knihách a jejich filmových adaptacích od roku 1970 do roku 2019. Každá z kapitol nejdříve pojednává o vývoji hororového žánru v jednotlivých desetiletích a poté zasazuje vybraná díla do jejich kontextu. Analytická část nejprve krátce představuje autora knihy, dále se zaměřuje na analýzu ženských postav a jejich rolí v daném textu a jak se filmovým tvůrcům podařilo převést podstatu těchto postav na velké plátno. Cílem práce je poskytnutí stručného přehledu žánru, kategorizace jednotlivých ženských postav a určení toho, zda a jak se vyobrazení ženských postav vyvíjelo. Klíčová slova: horor, moderní kinematografie, americká literatura, britská literatura, Stephen King, Thomas Harris, Clive Barker, Jeff VanderMeer, ženské postavy, Carrie, Osvícení, Hellraiser, Misery nechce zemřít, Mlčení jehňátek, Mlha, To, Anihilace Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto práci vypracovala samostatně. Veškeré prameny a literatura, které jsem pro vyhotovení práce využila, řádně cituji a uvádím v seznamu použité literatury a internetových zdrojů. V Opavě dne: . Podpis: . Veronika Hušková Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to express sincere gratitude to my supervisor PhDr. Diana Adamová, Ph.D. for her patience, valuable advice and professional guidance. Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 1. The 1970’s................................................................................................................ 3 1.1 Stephen King – the early years ............................................................................. 7 1.2 Carrie .................................................................................................................. 8 2. THE 1980’s ............................................................................................................ 16 2.1 Stephen King – the first success ......................................................................... 20 2.2 The Shining ....................................................................................................... 21 2.3 Clive Barker ...................................................................................................... 26 2.4 Hellraiser .......................................................................................................... 27 3. THE 1990’s ............................................................................................................ 32 3.1 Stephen King – the dividing decade ................................................................... 36 3.2 Misery ............................................................................................................... 37 3.3 Thomas Harris ................................................................................................... 41 3.4 The Silence of the Lambs ................................................................................... 42 4. THE 2000’s ............................................................................................................ 47 4.1 Stephen King – the digital era ............................................................................ 52 4.2 The Mist ............................................................................................................ 53 5. THE 2010’s ............................................................................................................ 58 5.1 Stephen King – the old and new directions ........................................................ 64 5.2 It and It Chapter 2 ............................................................................................. 65 5.3 Jeff VanderMeer ................................................................................................ 73 5.4 Annihilation ....................................................................................................... 74 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 80 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 85 1 Introduction The horror genre has been a popular source of entertainment for many years. Ever since the cinematography was born at the end of the 19th century and the first silent films started to grace the screens of film theatres everywhere, horror was an ever-present element accompanying the new-found visual experience. Nevertheless, since the release of arguably the first horror film ever made, the French Le Manoir du Diable (1896), the genre has certainly come a long way, and as the second decade of the 21st century recently drew to a close, it is time to delve into the changes the horror genre underwent.1 Horror comes in many forms and can be divided into countless sub-genres; still, it is the psychological horror that finds itself to be the most versatile and is able to creep its way into most of the other categories. The films that are examined in this thesis are all a part of or influenced by psychological horror, the focus of which are the inner turmoil, emotions and personal growth of the main characters. Surprisingly, while the cinematic horror has its roots in literature, horror adaptations are quite limited to certain areas of the genre; therefore this thesis focuses predominantly on Stephen King’s work, as the most adapted literary source in the genre by far. The limitations are extended by the lack of female characters in numerous other horror novelists’ works, with King being an exception followed by several other authors, some of which are also dealt with in this thesis. Women have always been a crucial part of the genre, ever since its beginnings. The Universal monster films of the early 1930’s usually featured a female victim, a damsel in distress or a love interest in various combinations and this trend continued and was glorified in a certain way through time, especially during the 1980’s slasher craze. Apart from a few exceptions, it was not until later in the 20th century when the female characters assumed a different role in horror films in addition to the already existing one: the one of a strong heroine or the one of an independent villain. King contributed greatly to this occurrence, with his plethora of female characters in different roles in his books; from the shy and outcast Carrie or the brave warrior Beverly to the embodiment of evil in Annie Wilkes. 1 See Phil Hardy, The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Horror (New York: Overlook Press, 1994), 3. 2 This thesis examines nine different female characters in nine films throughout the course of five decades. These characters are divided into three groups – victim, villain and heroine – each containing three characters. All the characters then form nine individual categories. Each chapter first examines one of the decades, with focus on what characterized it genre-wise and what changes were brought into it for the genre’s development. The individual novels and films are then discussed, beginning with a brief introduction of the author and his life, and followed by the introduction of the film, its plot and the changes that were made while adapting the novel into a movie. Since Stephen King is the most prominent author dealt with in this thesis, his life and work are discussed over the course of all the decades, each time only in relation to the said decade. Lastly, the selected female character is analysed at the end of each film segment. The thesis has several aims; to provide an overview of the decades in horror and the most prominent films and directors within each decade, to establish how each selected source material was adapted onto the screen, and to determine how did the depiction of female characters in these films change and evolved through time. 3 1. The 1970’s This thesis focuses on Noël Caroll’s definition of horror as “the product of a genre that crystalized, speaking very roughly, around the time of the publication of Frankenstein – give or take fifty years – and that has persisted, often cyclically, through the novels and plays of the nineteenth century and the literature, comic books, pulp magazines, and films of the twentieth,”2 which he calls ‘art-horror’, as opposed to the ‘natural horror’ that he describes