The Children's Horror Film
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A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/90706 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications The Children’s Horror Film: Beneficial fear and subversive pleasure in an (im)possible Hollywood subgenre Catherine Lester A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Television Studies Department of Film and Television Studies University of Warwick October 2016 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 4 Declaration of Inclusion of Published Work ............................................................................ 5 Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 6 List of Illustrations .................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction – Thinking of the Children ......................................................................... 11 Structure and Aims ............................................................................................................ 17 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 20 Textual analysis, or: valuing children’s film ................................................................... 21 Psychoanalysis and horror ............................................................................................. 23 ‘Children’s films’ vs. ‘family films’ .................................................................................. 25 Horror by any other name: selecting the corpus texts .................................................. 29 Chapter One – From Frankenstein to Frankenweenie: the history and characteristics of children’s horror in Hollywood cinema ......................................................................... 33 Fun Without Fear: Hollywood’s early attempts at children’s horror................................. 35 Children’s Horror in New Hollywood and Beyond ............................................................. 38 Identifying the ‘Impossible’ ............................................................................................... 44 Chapter Two – Realms of Horror: review of scholarly literature ..................................... 57 Horror: approaches and pleasures .................................................................................... 57 Tales of Terror: pedagogy and therapy in precursors to the children’s horror film .......... 64 Horror in Contemporary Children’s Culture ...................................................................... 72 Chapter Three – Little Nasties: the fear, loathing and subversive pleasure of the monstrous child ........................................................................................................... 75 Fear and Destruction of the Monstrous Child in Gremlins ................................................ 79 Suitable for children? Gremlins’ misleading marketing and classification .................... 80 ‘Children of the night’: Gremlins as carnivalesque pleasure ......................................... 85 Playtime’s over: restoration of the social order ............................................................ 96 Normalising Childish Monstrosity in ParaNorman ............................................................ 99 Norman’s uncanny ancestors ...................................................................................... 100 Freaks and geeks: the ‘abnormal’ production context of Laika ................................... 106 Horror and monstrosity as catharsis ............................................................................ 109 The Irreconcilability of the Cinematic Child-Vampire ...................................................... 119 The child-vampire as figure of adult horror ................................................................. 119 2 Twilight’s ‘de-fanged’ vampires ................................................................................... 122 The child-vampire as figure of childish pleasure ......................................................... 125 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 134 Chapter Four – The Unkindness of Strangers: child endangerment and questions of address ...................................................................................................................... 139 Anarchy in the USA: privileging the child and subverting ‘stranger danger’ in The Monster Squad ............................................................................................................................... 147 ‘We’re the Monster Squad’: undermining adult authority .......................................... 153 Old friends: elderly and monstrous allies in children’s horror .................................... 157 ‘I don’t bite’: Dracula as child predator and totalitarian adult authority .................... 164 Wicked Women: the witch as ultimate child predator in The Witches and Hocus Pocus 170 Matters of sex .............................................................................................................. 171 ‘Backlash’: the witch as failed/transgressive woman .................................................. 180 Becoming male, destroying the female ....................................................................... 187 A Tale of Two Endings ...................................................................................................... 194 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 199 Chapter Five – Home Discomforts: the uncanny horror of the home ............................ 202 ‘Anytown, USA’: the mundane home and the slasher aesthetic ..................................... 211 Out of Sight, Out of Mind: seeing and being seen in Coraline and The Hole ................... 225 Through the Trap Door: encounters with the ‘other’ ...................................................... 236 Defeating the maternal monster ................................................................................. 238 Becoming male, destroying the female (revisited) ...................................................... 248 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 264 Conclusion – The Possibility (and Possibilities) of Children’s Horror ............................. 268 ‘Freaky just got fabulous!’: monstrosity as catharsis and alternative femininity in Monster High .................................................................................................................................. 272 The Absent Children of Children’s Horror ........................................................................ 278 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 282 Filmography ......................................................................................................................... 299 Teleography ......................................................................................................................... 304 3 Acknowledgements This project has been in the works for almost six years – from an undergraduate essay to a Master’s dissertation, and now to this thesis. I have a number of people to thank for their guidance, support and company throughout these years. I would like to thank those who taught me during my BA and MA in the English and Film departments at the University of Hull for four enriching years and for encouraging me to pursue doctoral study. I am also immeasurably grateful to the staff of the Department of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick for continuing with that enrichment and encouragement over the course of my doctorate. My deepest gratitude goes especially to Helen Wheatley for her indispensable support and guidance over the last three years. Special thanks also go to her daughter, Dora, for tutoring me in the basics of Monster High and graciously allowing me access to her collection of Monster High dolls, DVDs and magazines. I am grateful to the following people and organisations for their various contributions to and assistance with this project: the editorial board and reviewers of The Velvet Light Trap, whose instructive comments on my article helped to shape much of the content of Chapter One; Richard Perkins at the University of Warwick library for never turning down a book request, and often going above and beyond to help me track something down; Christina Bentley for her permission to quote her Master’s dissertation in Chapter Three; and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, without whose financial support I would not have been