Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing / Isabel Cristina Pinedo
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Recreational Terror Recreational Terror : Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing SUNY title: Series, Interruptions -- Border Testimony(ies) and Critical Discourse/s author: Pinedo, Isabel Cristina. publisher: State University of New York Press isbn10 | asin: 0791434427 print isbn13: 9780791434420 ebook isbn13: 9780585055299 language: English Horror films--History and criticism, Motion subject picture audiences, Motion pictures and women. publication date: 1997 lcc: PN1995.9.H6P46 1997eb ddc: 791.43/616/082 Horror films--History and criticism, Motion subject: picture audiences, Motion pictures and women. Page ii SUNY Series, INTERRUPTIONS: Border Testimony(ies) and Critical Discourse/s Henry A. Giroux, editor Page iii Recreational Terror Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing Isabel Cristina Pinedo STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Page iv Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 1997 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246 Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Theresa Abad Swierzowski Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pinedo, Isabel Cristina, 1957- Recreational terror: women and the pleasures of horror film viewing / Isabel Cristina Pinedo. p. cm. (SUNY series, Interruptions Border testimony(ies) and Critical Discourse/s) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-3441-9 (hc: acid-free paper). ISBN 0-7914-3442-7 (pbk.: acid-free paper) 1. Horror filmsHistory and criticism. 2. Motion picture audiences. 3. Motion pictures and women. I. Title. II. Series. PN1995.9.H6P46 1997 791.43´616´082dc21 97-8033 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Page v For Heather Page vii Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. Recreational Terror and the Postmodern Elements of the 9 Contemporary Horror Film 2. The Pleasure of Seeing/Not-Seeing the Spectacle of the 51 Wet Death 3. And Then She Killed Him: Women and Violence in 69 the Slasher Film 4. The Cultural Politics of the Postmodern Horror Film 97 5. Race Horror 111 Afterword 133 Notes 137 Bibliography 153 Films Cited 163 Index 167 Page ix List of Illustrations 1.1 From A Nightmare on Elm Street 20 1.2 From The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 49 2.1 From The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 63 3.1 From Night of the Living Dead (1968) 78 3.2 From Night of the Living Dead (1990) 79 3.3 From The Stepfather 94 5.1 From The Believers 120 5.2 From Candyman 130 Page xi Acknowledgments This project into the world of horror films started with an exploration into myself. As a child, monsters populated my world. Those I sought out in the day, on television and in stories, were welcome. Those that came to me in nightmares were not. It took a good chunk of my early adulthood to sort out the place of monsters in my life. Since then, some have become old friends, others I no longer need. If not for Jackie Dryfoos I might never have traveled the long, labyrinthine course that led me to understand and appreciate these strange and wondrous creatures. She kept me company when the traveling was hard and lit a candle in the dark. By being true, she showed me how to be true to myself. Many friends and colleagues have contributed to the realization of this book. The members of my dissertation committeeMichael Brown, Stanley Aronowitz, Serafina Bathrick, and Tom Gunningwere invaluable in completing the project on which this book is based. I am grateful for Stanley's sweeping knowledge of theory which he generously shared with me, and Tom's attention to detail. Fina's theoretical and practical grasp of feminism was a delight, and it has been my privilege to be her colleague at Hunter College. Mike, the chair of my committee, provided unstinting support and remarkable acumen throughout my graduate school experience. His willingness to read this manuscript in its entirety, and to supply me with detailed comments on some portions of it were much appreciated. Page xii As I began to conceive of this project, Marty Rubin generously commented on my writing and steered me towards feminist film theory, which I studied with Janet Staiger whose enthusiasm for the subject was infectious. I received incisive feedback on earlier drafts from the members of the Writing Group including Jo Anstey, Heather Levi, Melissa Orlie, Debbie Wuliger, and Lynn Chancer. Lynn generously commented on the entire manuscript. Her friendship and professional support has been a model to me of what it means to be a feminist, both personally and intellectually. Students in my Film and Society course at SUNY Purchase and in my Movies as Mass Communication course at Hunter College responded in thought- provoking ways to some of the material in this book. Two anonymous reviewers and Frank Tomasulo provided extremely helpful editorial suggestions on an earlier draft of chapter one, which was published in the Journal of Film and Video. Marian Meyers read and provided helpful comments on an earlier draft of chapter three. Lyell Davies generously read the whole manuscript and supplied encouraging remarks. Anne Rubenstein went above and beyond the call of duty sharing her copious and intelligent comments on the entire manuscript. Barry Davison provided much needed help with library research. My thanks to Fairleigh Dickinson University for providing a faculty grant-in-aid in 1992 to assist with research expenses, and to Hunter College for a George N. Schuster Faculty Fellowship Grant in the Spring of 1995 to defray the costs of research and writing. I also benefitted from comments received on an earlier draft of chapter two, from the members of a CUNY Faculty Development Writing Seminar, Spring 1994. The Museum of Modern Art and stills archivist Terry Geesken assisted me in the selection of stills. Special thanks to my editors at SUNY Press, Priscilla Ross and Marilyn Semerad, for persevering with me through delays and complications. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Tom Carr, despite his better judgment, went to see horror films with me. I am grateful to him and to other friends who have watched and discussed horror films with me, including Billy DiFazio, Page xiii Dawn Esposito, and Heather Levi. My special thanks to Heather who has read and encouraged every incarnation of this project. Her immeasurable love and support have been a mainstay of my life for many years. Her love of horror films has been but one of the many things we've shared in a relationship that has been vital to my well- being. Finally, I want to thank my mother and hero, Lucy Mettler, who taught me the importance of learning. Page 1 Introduction Like others before me, my choice of book topic is intimately connected to who I ama feminist and an avid horror fana combination some might regard as an oxymoron. Nevertheless, it is precisely my conflicting and evolving interests that have led me to treat this as an important topic of intellectual inquiry. Prior to my realization that the relationship between feminism and cinematic horror is an uneasy one, my interest in the horror film was strictly recreational. Although the details of my background are not generalizable to the larger variegated population of horror fans, they do allow me to connect my interests to the larger social context of lived experience in which I participate. It is in this spirit that I share them here. I was raised in a Catholic, working-class, Latin American immigrant household, in a largely Italian neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. Until I reached graduate school, I was educated almost exclusively in Catholic schools where I experienced first the traditional church then the church of Vatican II. The visual and narrative imagery of this confluence of Catholicisms was a formative experience. I was fascinated by the narrative drama of Christ's torture and death, also known as The Passion. This story was ritually recounted in vivid detail on Good Friday when the priest recited the Stations of the Cross, fourteen episodes rehearsing Christ's lonely vigil in the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal, arrest, interrogation, lashing, crowning with thorns, ridicule, climb to Calvary, crucifixion Page 2 and torment, culminating in his death on the cross. A stunning combination of bloody spectacle and excess-driven narrative. This dense thicket of Catholic imagery prepared me for my childhood introduction to televised horrorTwilight Zone, Outer Limits, Creature Feature, Night Gallery, Dark Shadows, and the television runs of Universal and Hammer films. The English Gothics in particular dealt with such figures of the Catholic imagination as the Inquisition, witchcraft, the devil, magical incantations, and the saving power of holy water and the cross. What all these stories shared was the ability to provide me, and assorted family and friends, with legitimate occasions to overtly express terror and rage, feelings that were otherwise forbidden. These stories allowed us to exercise, rather than exorcise, emotions of tremendous importance that were otherwise denied legitimate expression. As I grew up I discovered the novels of Stephen King, and followed the horror film into its later, gorier incarnations. Until, that is, my immersion into feminism in the early eighties placed me in the compromising position of being a fan of a genre which many feminists excoriated for its depiction of violence against women.